THE number of potholes reported in Surrey last month has more than doubled compared to previous years, it has been revealed, with Farnham particularly potted with craters following a double whammy of snow earlier this year.

It has been revealed by the county council’s cabinet member for Highways, Colin Kemp, that the number of potholes reported to Surrey County Council (SCC) in March was 8,377. This figure is up by a whopping 4,526 reported potholes compared to the average number of 3,851 in March over the previous four years.

It was a similar story for February as the number of reported craters had risen from a four-year average of 3,516 to 6,524 this year. That’s an increase of 3,008.

The figures correlate with when the ‘Beast from the East’ and then the ‘Mini Beast from the East’ hit Farnham in March - the damage caused to the roads now apparent.

Following the cold-snap, SCC announced that an extra £5 million pounds was going to be invested into the county’s roads.

Mr Kemp said: “You can see the size of the issue we are dealing with and this is the worse it has been since the floods in 2013.

“We have also taken the decision to postpone some of the non-essential [highways] work to divert resource to identify and repair some of our roads.

“Alongside that, [council highways contractor] Kier have drafted in additional resource and where they would normally have about eight to 12 crews out repairing our network, there are currently 25 crews working in Surrey.

“Even with all that resource on the network it is a major challenge but with the weather looking better going forward we will hopefully start to see an improvement over the next few weeks.”

Andy Hibberd, owner of 101 Collectors Records in Farnham, took to Twitter to complain to SCC about the state of the roads, writing: “Just the 24 potholes on my 15 mile journey from Woking to Farnham every day @SurreyCouncil including these two beauties in The Hart.

“Now the evenings are light I’ll check them going home too. I know budgets are tight but...”

It comes not long after Surrey was identified as being the worst county in the UK for potholes, with over 6,700 needing filling.

It was according to data on the Fill That Hole website which allows people, mainly cyclists, to report the potholes and then passes the details on to local authorities.

The league table showed that SCC had fixed 15 per cent of the reported craters, leaving 6,757 damaging potholes as “Open Reports”.

Wyatt Ramsdale, Conservative county councillor for Farnham South, said: “In my view prior to the winter weather we were catching up on the potholes.

“The period of thawing during the day and freezing at night will take time to recover from, but we should all be assured that the right, well directed, well motivated team are being applied to the issues.

“I ask that all of our residents ensure that all the potholes they see are reported. If it isn’t reported it won’t be fixed!”

When the Herald asked for the public’s thoughts on the issue, it became clear that there were obvious concerns.

One complaint came from Bruce Nicholson who said: “I’m completely fed up with this from SCC Highways. They couldn’t give a monkeys about the roads around Farnham.” 

He was also “completely fed up with the these potholes near to me, and all the others that we have to avoid around Farnham on a daily basis”.

Des May unfortunately hit two of the craters on the A31 just before the Coxbridge Business Park, wrecking his alloy and tyre. The cost to him is almost £785.

He said: “It won’t be long before a cyclist or motorcyclist is seriously injured if they are unfortunate enough to not see these.”

And when Paul Hinxman took his car to a mechanic to be fixed, he was told that he “was the second that day and he had numerous others from the same pothole”.

Hotspots for the craters seemed to emerge, notably on the approach to the Coxbridge roundabout on the A31 eastbound, Shortheath Road and School Hill, Wrecclesham.

Farnham Residents county councillor for Farnham North, Stephen Spence, added: “I’ve been round the Farnham North district with the new Surrey Local Highways Officer and discussed which potholes might get on the list for a share of the additional £5m being made available, which might be dealt with from central Highways funds, and which might be paid for from the small local Highways fund I can allocate; such as the patching done by the bus stop on Sandy Hill Road that residents highlighted and I argued for.

“In response to the UK Government cutting councils’ funding dramatically since 2010, Surrey has chopped £540m off the county budget with more cuts being made this year and into the future, so only when a strong community voice is heard is there a possibility things can improve.”

To report a pothole go to www9.surreycc.gov.uk/highwayproblem.