Potholes backlog soars as council struggles to keep up
BBCOur roads and social media feeds appear to be full of one thing for a lot of people this winter: potholes.
The long spells of rain that have fallen over Shropshire since the start of this year have significantly worsened the state of our highways.
Mechanic Mike Millard, who runs a tyre-fitting firm in Bridgnorth, said he had not known the roads to be this bad in decades.
Shropshire Council, which maintains more than 3,100 miles of roads in the county, says it was aware of the backlog of repairs and had extra highways teams out across the area, filling holes.
More than 2,100 road defects were reported to the authority in January, almost triple the 799 logged by residents in December.
The number is also almost double the number reports in January 2025.
Drivers from all over the county have complained on social media of damaged or burst tyres due to the breakout of potholes.
"They are horrendous," said Millard, who replaces tyres for agricultural and commercial vehicles.
"In Stottesdon, there were seven cars in a row that had all hit the same pothole.
"Some of them are half-a-foot deep and two or three feet wide.
"Normally I would fix about two or three cars a month because of pothole damage, but I'm doing that every day at the moment."
As a driving instructor, Jordan Brown, from Shrewsbury, spends most days on the road.
He had two tyres changed in January because of slow punctures caused by potholes.
"Not only am I having to teach students how to drive, I'm also having to show them how to swerve around potholes," he said.
"Some of the holes are big enough that students have to treat them like parked vehicles and either stop completely or slow down to give way to oncoming traffic.
"I don't want potholes to knock their confidence if they damage the car.
"But equally, I don't want my car off the road for a day or two because of damage to the wheel."
Potholes typically form during winter when water seeps into tiny cracks in a road surface and soften the base underneath.
When the water freezes, it expands and causes the asphalt above to crumble.
Due to January being one of the wettest starts to the year on record, along with a bout of heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures, conditions have been perfect for potholes to form.
"We recognise it's a big problem," said councillor David Vasmer, the person in charge of highways at Liberal Democrat-run Shropshire Council.
"We were getting on top of potholes last year and filled in more than 20,000 since we came to office in May, but January has been bad for weather and it's set us back.
"We are making inroads into the backlog but this month and next month will be difficult.
"There is no quick fix but the quality of repairs are improving and we have more teams on the road sorting them out."
The authority is encouraging residents to report potholes so problematic roads can be assessed and fixed.
Last year, 6,892 defects were logged with the authority by residents and 30,805 repairs carried our, as the council does not just repair the holes reported by people but ones, for instance, spotted by road crews.
"People must make complaints on Fix My Street," said Vasmer.
"It's very important that people let us know so we can take action."
The amount of government funding allocated to the council to improve highway maintenance is increasing over the next four years.
Residents in the south Shropshire village of Church Preen will be hoping that some of that money can be spent on their roads.
They claim some of the country lanes in the area have become impassable due to being in such a poor state.
Earlier this month, they invited the area's Conservative MP, Stuart Anderson, to see the issue first hand.
"Residents feel forgotten about and left behind here," said Anderson.
"I want to know from Shropshire Council why the roads in Church Preen haven't been repaired as it's purely unacceptable.
"All they're asking for is to be able to drive their cars down their roads. Other people can do that in urban areas, so why can't we do that in south Shropshire?"
The council's Lib Dems leader Heather Kidd said rural roads across the county were "awful and dreadful".
She blamed "decades of underinvestment" by the last two Conservative governments and said an increase in funding would result in more roads being resurfaced.
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