News
New survey finds Manchester has the lowest rate of fixed reported potholes in the UK
The city has been named one of the country's 'pothole capitals'.
Emily Sergeant -
29th January 2024 
Manchester apparently has the lowest rate of fixed reported potholes in the UK, a new survey has discovered.
It comes as a list of Britain’s so-called ‘pothole capitals’ has been released, with Manchester coming in at number eight.
Hereford, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Sheffield, and Birmingham are among the English places that accompany Manchester on the top 10 list, while the top two spots are (unfortunately) claimed by Scotland’s two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Wrexham and Swansea were Wales’ representatives within the top 10.
All these shocking revelations are according to a new study from data collection experts at SmartSurvey, who analysed the reports of potholes registered via FixMyStreet.com for 68 cities across England, Scotland, and Wales – but excluding London.
Top 10 ‘pothole capitals’ in the UK
| City | Potholes unfixed per 1,000 residents | Fix rate (%) | |
| 1 | Glasgow | 11.7 | 24.25 |
| 2 | Edinburgh | 8.2 | 22.25 |
| 3 | Hereford | 7.9 | 50.24 |
| 4 | Southampton | 7.3 | 31.65 |
| 5 | Wrexham | 5.9 | 26.93 |
| 6 | Stoke-on-Trent | 5.7 | 37.28 |
| 7 | Sheffield | 5.5 | 37.73 |
| 8 | Manchester | 5.4 | 19.18 |
| 9 | Birmingham | 5.1 | 24.07 |
| 10 | Swansea | 5.0 | 24.26 |
Since some residents use the FixMyStreet platform more than others, fix rates were evaluated only for the 41 cities with at least 100 reports registered since 2007 – which is when the platform was launched – up until 12 January 2024.
The top 10 cities with the highest number of potholes per capita are contained within the latter 41 cities, where fix rates were said to have been ‘measurable’.
Glasgow was named as Britain’s pothole capital, among the cities outside London, because, since 2007, Glaswegians filed 9,780 reports of potholes, and only 2,372 had been marked as “fixed” until 12 January this year, with the remaining 7,408 reports said to be spread “rather evenly” across the city’s population of 635,130.
This is the equivalent of 11.7 yet-to-be-fixed reported potholes for every 1,000 residents.
Experts at SmartSurvey say that, as of 12 January 2024, city dwellers across Britain – outside of London, are still waiting for local authorities to solve a total of 70,413 pothole reports, and apparently, Councils tend to fix only four in 10 potholes,
This is based on average rates in cities with the most “proactive” residents.
Read more:
- Government to give Greater Manchester an extra £6.2 million to fill potholes across region
- New research reveals there’s currently over 7,000 potholes across Greater Manchester
- Celebrating ‘Wanksy’ – the Manchester street artist who turned potholes into penises
Back in March of last year, the UK Government allocated Councils in Greater Manchester over £6.2 million extra to tackle potholes across the region.
Featured Image – Flickr
