National news outlets are reporting the huge sum of money councils are dolling out to repair the poor road conditions created by this winter's spout of cold weather.
It follows comments the Local Government Association made on the BBC's Daily Politics programme. Councillor Richard Kemp from LGA said councils need more help from central government to keep up with repairing potholes. Last month the LGA asked for an extra £100m of emergency funding from the Department of Transport to tackle the thousands of holes left after this winter's big freeze.
And people are reporting problem potholes acros Cardiff;
On the website Fix My Street today, a pothole was reported on Whitchurch Road in Gabalfa, while this report made on Sunday claims a heavy council lorry was the culprit. This pothole in Pontcanna was reported on 3 March, and these four potholes found the day before in Rumney.
The cost of a pothole
I first investigated this issue back last December and put in a freedom of information request to Cardiff Council asking for pothole figures across the city broken down by street.
The worst road in the city is Heol Lewis in Rhwbina with 127 potholes. The top most potholed streets out of 21 in Cardiff were in Pentyrch, Penylan, Pontprennau and Llanrumney/Rumney. The total number of potholes at the time of the request in Cardiff recorded was 1,352 and the council said they had repaired 8,850 carriageway potholes in the last year, costing £1.2 million, roughly £130 per pothole.
The Welsh Assembly Government recently announced it will be pumping £2.75m into local authorities to help them tackle potholes. Cardiff Council will receive £233,750 of this money.
A council spokesperson said:
"The cost of repairing a pothole is extremely subjective and can vary according to a number of factors. The WLGA has previously stated that the beginning of 2010 saw a big increase in costs associated with potholes for local authorities across Wales and Cardiff is no exception to this.
The city's Highways team continues to work tirelessly to meet this year's increased demand and a recent announcement of extra money from the Welsh Assembly Government will help complete and continue repairs."
Rhwbina Councillor Jayne Cowan said: "I definitely think we need additional funding. We log the potholes and they go and do a basic job and then need to do some quality repair because in the long run it will cost more money if it's not done properly."
Cardiff Council said their inspection regime included making sure streets were looked at every six months, ordering work to be done on any holes greater than 20mm deep.
You can see the comprehensive data set from the council here, and the subsequent report on WalesOnline here.
We would encourage you to plot your pothole on the Fix My Street map as it will be sent directly to Cardiff Council who will deal with the problem. Other pothole websites include fillthathole.org.uk and potholes.co.uk and yourCardiff have also started a map of Cardiff potholes.
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