Devon potholes: Reports surge by 85% as 'brutal' weather takes toll on roads

Devon’s pothole problem looks to have skyrocketed this year with the brutal weather conditions pounding the county’s highways network.

Fresh figures show the number of potholes recorded in January and part of February vastly outstripped the scale of damage in the same time periods last year.

In January this year, 8,340 potholes were recorded, a huge 58 per cent spike on the 5,250 recorded in the same month in 2025, according to data requested by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

And figures for this month – up until 19 February – show a further 6,332 potholes were recorded, a staggering 85 per cent rise on the 3,416 recorded in the same 19 days in 2025.

That is likely to add to the current pothole repair waiting list of 2,884.

Not every pothole reported qualifies as being sufficiently bad to repair, with only around one-third of reports Devon County Council receives turning into actionable safety defects under the council’s highway safety policy.

The council prioritises repairing potholes on roads that have a 40mm (4 centimetre) vertical edge and are 300mm (30 centimetres) wide, as it deems those “the biggest risk to highway users”.

Furthermore, the report numbers can be skewed by duplicate reports – estimates on the council’s website suggest around a fifth of reported potholes are duplicates.

However, the council has acknowledged the dire weather conditions in 2026 – including in parts of the county where it claimed 200 per cent of the average rainfall fell in January – have taken a heavy toll on the county’s roads.

Devon is already at a disadvantage compared to other councils because of its sheer scale; its website states it oversees more than 8,000 miles of roads, making it the largest road network in the country.

In the county council’s budget for the next financial year beginning in April, full council this week (Tuesday 24 February) agreed extra spending on roads.

It approved a £2 million increase in spending on highways maintenance to £32.4 million for the 2026/27 financial year, plus an additional £4 million.

And over the next five years, it said £546.1 million would be invested in highways, including an extra £55 million over the five years for preventative maintenance.

At this week’s full council, one member submitted a motion that proposed asking Devon’s residents for an additional £29 million in council tax – in addition to the £37 million extra it was already asking for.

The idea behind the motion was to plough that £29 million into highways, but the motion was defeated because of the wide-ranging view that cash for roads should come from government rather than residents.

On the additional potholes that appear to have emerged on Devon’s roads just in 2026 so far, a spokesperson for the council said: “Throughout this winter, there has been a continued pattern of freezing road conditions followed by a significant thaw and heavy rainfall.

“This is incredibly damaging for our roads and has led to an increase in potholes. The ongoing wet weather has compounded the problem.

“Devon Highways teams worked during the Christmas holidays to deal with pothole repairs and there are currently over 50 teams operating across the network to try and tackle the backlog.

“Many of these crews continue to work additional hours on Saturdays and Sundays to keep the network as safe as possible.

“As well as dealing with the high demand from potholes, the same teams have also been a critical part of Devon Highways’ response in cleaning up after a number of named storms.”