Council received fewer complaints about potholes than almost anywhere else.

IT may come as a surprise to Warrington road users, but the borough council received fewer complaints about potholes than almost anywhere else in the North West last year.

Warrington received 569 complaints – and only Blackpool, with 425 and Lancashire, with 536, received fewer.

Near neighbour Halton received 708, Cheshire East 945, St Helens 1482, Salford 2024, . Wigan 2568. Trafford 3419 and Chester West and Chester a whopping 8635.
The figures have been collected by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), who use Freedom of Information requests to local authorities to draw up a league table.
The FSB concentrate mainly on authorities in Greater Manchester where they also look at how many legal claims are received for damage caused to vehicles by potholes.
Their research showed that half of Greater Manchester’s 10 councils fail to spend their allocated road repair budget.

Wigan had the largest underspend, spending only 75 per cent of allocated funds on repairs it had budgeted for – despite its hefty 2,568 pothole complaints.
FSB spokesman David Sudworth said: “While a well-maintained road network may be seen by some as a ‘nice to have’, they’re actually rather important. Everybody relies on the road network in one way or another, whether that’s getting to work by bus, car or bike, or for businesses to get their goods in and out on time. Our roads, paid for by our taxes, are our most important transport asset, and authorities must continue to invest in them.”