Northamptonshire pothole campaigner says our roads aren't improving
Mark Morrell aka Mr Pothole hopes cash will be spent on our roads in the Chancellors Spending Review tomorrow.
Last updated 10th Jun 2025
A Northamptonshire campaign who has semi-retired from his calls for better roads, says our pothole problems haven't got better.
Mark Morrell from Brackley says he hasn't seen any changes that he says are needed, since Labour came to power.
His calls come as its revealed motorists are forking out thousands of pounds to repair pothole-related damage to their vehicles. The figures come from new research by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart.
A survey of 1,855 IAM RoadSmart members found that five percent of motorists spent more than £1,000 on repairs to damaged tyres, suspension, and steering, due to poor road conditions over the past 12 months.
A quarter (26%) of respondents said they stumped up to £200, and a further quarter (24%) spent between £300 and £600 on repairs. Based on the survey, drivers spent an average of £320 in between 2023 and 2024.
Over a fifth of (22%) motorists reported needing repairs at least once a year due to pothole damage, often discovered during routine servicing or MOT checks.
Mark Morrell says it's also not just about money but safety:
"It's reported that one cyclist a week is killed or injured every week as a result of potholes and over 70 motorcyclists are killed or injured as a result of badly maintained roads. So there's a human cost as well as the economic cost."
Mark says to pay out on our roads, it would lead to an economic boost:
"There's the cost of injures to the economy to the NHS, the cost of investigating deaths, so when you look at it holistically I can't see a reason not to be investing in our roads."
Three quarters (74%) of motorists admitted to braking sharply to avoid potholes on journeys in the last 12 months, while almost all motorists (99%) admitted they were frequently forced to drive or ride in the middle of the road to avoid potholes or crumbling surfaces within their path.
Mark says he hopes to see more money confirmed by Rachel Reeves in her Spending Review this Wednesday 11 June:
"My argument is they need to spending £3 billion a year, year on year to reduce the backlog in carriageway maintenance that we've got. By spending that they would save billions because it's estimates it's costing economy 14.4 billion a year. If you spent the money I'm suggesting over 10 years it would halve that."
Earlier this year, the UK Government announced a £1.6 billion investment to improve road conditions and repair seven million potholes by 2026.
However, research published earlier this year by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) revealed a one-off cost of £16.8bn was needed just to bring UK roads up to an adequate condition. It also found that 52% of local roads have less than 15 years useable life left in them.