An 84-year-old cyclist was killed when the front wheel of his bike got jammed in a nine inch-deep pothole on a remote rural road.
Harry Colledge, a retired music teacher and father of three, suffered fatal injuries after he was catapulted from his bicycle in Wyre, Lancashire, on Monday.
His wife, Valerie Colledge, 69, told The Telegraph that both central and local Governments must do more to repair potholes on the country’s “woefully inadequate” roads.
She spoke as new analysis of council expenditure revealed potholes are blighting rural roads because up to half as much money is spent per mile on repairs in the countryside compared to towns and cities.
“Potholes are a horrendous problem for cyclists,” Mrs Colledge said from her Lancashire home. “Harry’s front wheel got stuck in a nine inch-deep pothole. A local farmer told me she had complained to the council about the pothole but nothing was done.
“Roads here are in a terrible condition. The lane where Harry died is used by heavy milk trucks, tractors and lorries, so often subsides.”
A Lancashire County Council spokesman said it was “looking into the circumstances” of Mr Colledge’s death and was cooperating with the police investigation.
Rural areas handed fraction of city repair funds
Now Mrs Colledge, along with motoring and cycling safety campaigners, are calling for more to be done to prevent future deaths.
The Department for Transport’s own data shows that since 2016 at least 425 cyclists have been killed or injured because of poor or defective road surfaces.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which represents companies supplying materials and repairing roads, released its latest analysis of local authority expenditure which showed stark differences in funding for road repairs in rural and urban areas.
On average, each mile of road in the south west of England - including Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Gloucestershire - had just £7,040 spent on vital repairs in the financial year 2021/22.
But, roads in the more urban North West region, which includes Manchester, Liverpool, Stockport, Salford and Wigan, had £13,385 per road mile spent on improvements over the same period.
Meanwhile, the east and south east of England - which includes Oxfordshire, Kent, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex - received £13,205 and £11,767 a mile respectively. The difference between rural and urban expenditure could be even greater because London was not included in the data.
The Midlands region, excluding Birmingham, saw £12,714 spent to repair each road mile, £12,607 allocated in the North East, and £11,478 in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Rick Green, AIA chairman, said its survey found £12 billion was needed to bring roads “up to scratch”, adding that a “longer-term funding horizon” would help local councils better plan their road maintenance.
“Not investing in local road maintenance only leads to worsening conditions, which impacts on other locally provided public services, and a rising bill to fix the problem,” he said.
Keir Gallagher, of Cycling UK, said Mr Colledge’s death highlighted the serious threat potholes pose to cyclists, adding how “our crumbling roads … are deterring many from taking up cycling”.
“Popping out for some exercise in the countryside shouldn’t be a high-risk activity: it’s time for the Government to get serious about the risk potholes pose, and to ensure local authorities have long-term funding to properly fix and maintain the local roads,” he added.
Jack Cousens of the AA said cyclists face “the hardest of choices about whether to hit the pothole or swerve and hope they avoid other traffic”.
Councillor David Renard, the Local Government Association’s transport spokesman, said: “Even before current inflation levels, existing Government funding was insufficient for them to protect overall road conditions at current levels.”
He added that pothole repairs recently have increased by about 25 per cent.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We continue to work tirelessly to improve safety, which is why we are investing more than £5 billion from 2020 to 2025 into local highways maintenance.
“This funding is allocated based on the length and type of roads – without any regional bias – and local authorities decide how to use it based on local needs.”
