County council repaired more than 10 potholes a day on average last year
Richard Youle – Local democracy reporter
A county council repaired just over 10 potholes a day on average last year – significantly more than the previous 12 months.
Highways staff at Carmarthenshire Council repaired 3,623 potholes compared to 2,360 in 2024-25.
The figures closely align with the number of potholes reported by the public in both years although the defects are also picked up by staff during scheduled inspections.
The council received 156 insurance claims for damage and injury caused by potholes in the last two years and paid out on five of them. The total amount paid out, excluding any ongoing claims, was £8,181.
It provided the figures following a freedom of information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Cllr Edward Thomas, cabinet member for transport, waste, and infrastructure services, said the council inspected, assessed, and repaired road defects like potholes in line with national guidance and best practice.
He said all pothole reports by the public were logged and where necessary assessed.
“Reactive pothole repairs are carried out to address immediate safety concerns however the council’s long‑term strategy is focused on targeted, planned maintenance to prolong the lifespan of road surfaces and deliver best value across the county’s road network whilst working within the available budget,” said Cllr Thomas.
A council scrutiny committee heard last November that the number of potholes recorded in the county soared from 1,978 in 2020 to 11,014 in 2024. The figure for the first 10 months of 2025 was 9,146.
A committee report said Carmarthenshire had the second-largest road network of Wales’ 22 councils and the fifth-highest traffic levels. “The increase in potholes is as a result of sustained low levels of investment in preventative maintenance,” it said.
Potholes worsen in winter when water freezes and expands, causing further cracks.
Carmarthenshire is not unique in having a seemingly endless list of potholes to fix. Swansea Council repaired 6,322 of them in 2025-26 and received 5,455 pothole reports from the public. It also paid out £111,175 in pothole damage and injury claims during 2024-25 and 2025-26 but the number paid out was only a fraction of those received.
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CCC paid out on 5 claims out of 156
Are they saying that 151 were not valid?
Yes. A successful claim is when a claimant has proven their case in court (or more often an insurance company legal team thinks they will do so, so worth taking it to court) and in so failed to prove that loss or harm has been suffered as a result of negligence by the county council.
What is the criteria that
CCC will accept as a valid claim for damage to a vehicle? Perhaps the five successful claiments could enlighten those whose vehicles have been damaged by the ever increasing potholes in the County?
Therein lies the quandary of our age: nobody likes potholes, but also nobody can agree on what to do about them. I don’t envy the Sisyphean task faced by local authorities.
It’s a complex issue. Vehicles have been getting heavier (SUVs + EV), there are more cars on the road, the weather is fluctuating more wildly with extremes of higher temps and more rain; roads can’t cope. Maintenance will always be required on roads, and yes, tackling climate change is obviously a gargantuan task. Governments are beginning to try and change commuter habits with investment into public transport and sustainable travel, this will help remove vehicles from the road. Addressing vehicle weights should be an achievable target for governments with a bit of will… they will need a lot of resolve… Read more »
Only ten potholes a day!!!! Surely the council can do better than that. This morning whilst out in my car I spotted three council vans parked on the side of the road within about a quarter of a mile from each other on the Five Roads to Pont-iets road. Workmen were just sitting in their cabs on their phones with no work whatsoever going on. Other times workmen can be seen standing in groups of six or seven, again most of them looking at their phones leaning on vehicles with no work taking place, with the same number of vehicles.… Read more »
They maybe fixing them ,but the standard of the fix must be questioned .Does councils actually check the quality of the work carried out I very must doubt it.
My question too. Are they hiring private companies and paying them per pothole, so that they get incentivised to do a bad job to be paid to repair the same defect every six months.