Potholes and pothole maintenance

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information relating to potholes and pothole maintenance in your council area.

Please provide the following, broken down by calendar year for the last three full calendar years (2022, 2023 and 2024).

Please also provide information from 2025 to-date (up until 31/09/2025). If data is not available up until then, please specify when the 2025 data runs until.

1 - The total number of potholes reported to the council

2 - The total number of potholes repaired by the council

3 - The total estimated cost (in £) of pothole repairs carried out by the council each year, including both planned and reactive maintenance, if available.

If this information is not held specifically for pothole repairs, please provide the total annual spend on carriageway maintenance or road surface repairs instead, and briefly outline how this data is categorised or recorded.

4 - The total number of compensation claims made to the council due to damage caused by potholes

5 - The total number of compensation claims paid out

6 - The total value (in £) of compensation paid, if available

7 - The road(s) in your council area with the highest number of pothole reports in each year

If any of the above data is only available in financial years (rather than calendar years), please make this clear and provide the information in that format instead.

 

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

1. The total number of potholes reported to the council Calendar year 2022 – 10,617 enquiries

Calendar year 2023 – 17,160 enquiries

Calendar year 2024 – 17,379 enquiries

Calendar year 2025 (up until 31/09/2025) – 9,239 enquiries

*Please note - the number of enquiries detailed above may include instances of duplicate reporting.

2. The total number of potholes repaired by the council

Calendar year 2022 – 29,806 pothole jobs completed

Calendar year 2023 – 36,050 pothole jobs completed

Calendar year 2024 – 34,603 pothole jobs completed

Calendar year 2025 (up until 31/09/2025) – 21,052 pothole jobs completed

*Please note - the number of pothole jobs completed above relates specifically to pothole jobs raised.

However, this does not include additional potholes that may have been repaired through other works carried out by LCC on the carriageways during each year, such as whole carriageway resurfacing, carriageway patching and other carriageway minor works.

3. LCC do not record the cost of individual pothole repairs.

LCC follows a risk-based approach to pothole repairs as set out in our Highways Asset Management Strategy which requires repairs to be carried out at differing response times depending on the risk to the public.

Each of these repair times has a separate price and the number of repairs in each category can vary greatly. It is not possible to give exact expenditure as LCC operates a complete reactive service and costs are not separated into carriageway pothole repairs only.

The Highways Asset Management Strategy can be found here: Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Strategy

4. The total number of compensation claims made to the council due to damage caused by potholes

2022 - total claims 1330

2023 - total claims 1769

2024 - total claims 1561

2025 to date 615

5. The total number of compensation claims paid out

2022 - total claims settled 447

2023 - total claims settled 386

2024 - total claims settled 318

2025 to date 64

6. The total value (in £) of compensation paid, if available

2022 value of claims settled £65,234.37

2023 value of claims settled £75,835.02

2024 value of claims settled £61,032.20

2025 value of claims settled to date £39,630.38

7. Calendar year 2022 – Martin South Drove, Martin near Sleaford (67 enquiries)

Calendar year 2023 – A16 Spalding Bypass to B1166, Cowbit (140 enquiries)

Calendar year 2024 – Dysart Road, Grantham (103 enquiries)

Calendar year 2025 – A16 Spalding Bypass to B1166, Cowbit (63 enquiries up until 31/09/2025)

Roads are made up of individual segments known as Unique Street Reference Numbers (USRNs).

The number and length of these segments can vary depending on the type of road.

For instance, major roads such as ‘A’ roads can consist of multiple USRNs, while smaller roads may be represented by a single USRN.

The figures provided above are based on individual USRNs, which offers the most practical and consistent approach for analysis in response to your query.

It is important to note that longer USRNs are more likely to generate a higher volume of enquiries simply due to their greater coverage area compared to shorter segments.