Pothole repairs to tackle impact of weeks of rain

Thousands of potholes on Dorset roads will be repaired following the wettest January day in 74 years.

Roads across the county took a battering as rain continued to fall throughout February, with some under water for more than a month.

Dorset Council said it has already repaired 3,000 potholes so far this year, after reports increased by 92% between December and February, compared with the same period last year.

The authority has agreed to spend an extra £5m on repairs with the worst hit roads due to fixed later in the year.

Jon Andrews, cabinet member for place services, said: "Since the start of 2026 Dorset has faced some of the most persistent and disruptive flooding we have seen in many years.

"Our priority now is to repair the damage these storms have inflicted – our rural roads have taken a battering.

"We need dry conditions before this work can go ahead but we will be doing this at the earliest opportunity.

"Meanwhile, our highways team have been incredibly busy, repairing over 3,000 potholes in January and February alone."

Work has already begun to assess which roads need to be prioritised.

Since 22 December, the council said it received nearly 10,000 highways related enquiries, responded to 862 emergency callouts and repaired 5,508 highway defects.

It said extra staff had been drafted in to cope with the increase in demand and it had been able to respond to emergency callouts within two hours and repaired the most serious potholes within 32 hours.

The Met Office revealed the county's weather station at Hurn recorded its wettest January day in 74 years. While 92.3mms of rain - almost exactly 200% of the 10-year average for the month – fell in the first half of February.

Andrews said: "We understand the frustrations from our residents when they see the state of some of our flood damaged roads, but they can be assured our staff are working incredibly hard repairing potholes, with the most serious being repaired within hours."