Many voters heading to the polls in Thursday's English local elections will have one subject at the top of their agenda - the state of the roads in their area.

Opinion polls suggest potholes are right up there with the cost of living, health services and crime as the key deciding issue for how they will vote.

From the risk of damage to vehicles costing hundreds of pounds to the danger for those travelling on bikes or by foot, potholes can also be a visible sign of a community's upkeep.

The UK government said it wants to end the "pothole plague" although Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, who is responsible for roads in England, struck a pothole and damaged her Mini Cooper last month.

Alexander joked she "thought that the astronauts on Artemis II might have seen a similar-size crater" during their recent voyage around the Moon, a comment that attracted criticism from her local authority.

People contacting the BBC's Your Voice have reported their roads becoming "undriveable" and "dreadful" due to potholes while also raising questions about the response of their councils.

But what is the situation facing councils responsible for maintaining the local road network in their area and how are they approaching it?

Industry body the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) outlined the scale of the task in its 2026 survey released in March.

It said the cost of bringing pothole-plagued local roads in England and Wales up to scratch would be an estimated £18.6bn and it could take 12 years to clear despite an increase in funding.

The AIA said the survey results reported 1.9 million potholes were filled over the past year.

If one man embodies the battle to improve the state of our roads, it's a campaigner dubbed Mr Pothole.

Angered by unmet promises made to voters, Mr Pothole - real name Mark Morrell - has written a poem entitled Hypocrisy on the Highway in which he notes "once the ballots are all cast, their urgency fades - shockingly fast" after the "pledges quietly derail".

Morrell, who talks about "pothole Britain", advised councillors to get on top of the detail, be upfront about the scale of the challenge and outline a realistic plan should they win power.

Northamptonshire-based Morrell, who established National Pothole Day in 2015, said: "They need to find out what they're talking about before making statements."

He said that if he was standing for election, he would want to know "how many potholes you've got, what the backlog is, what the details are and say what I could really do".

Morrell, who said he has given advice to councillors and candidates who have contacted him, also spoke of the need for better training and repair techniques to respond to potholes, and an "invest to save" approach.

He said: "A pothole hasn't got politics, it just needs fixing. But a pothole is only a sign of failure of resurfacing and maintaining the network."

In January, the Department for Transport published a traffic light rating system judging local authorities on how they are maintaining their roads and spending government funding.

The department defended its methodology after some councils questioned how the green, amber and red ratings were worked out.

When it comes to the political parties, there are several pledges to act, and the quality of the repairs - rather than just details about the quantity - are likely to be important.

A Reform UK spokesman said its councils have been trying to find "new solutions to fix the broken roads they inherited", including using "cutting-edge new technology to make pothole repairs faster and more efficient".

The Conservatives have spoken about wanting to establish a "national pothole patrol", which involves deploying specialist repair units using "the most effective technology on the market".

The Liberal Democrats said they have a national policy on supporting councils to fix potholes and decisions are made locally by the authorities.

Lib Dem local government spokesperson Zoe Franklin said: "The state of our roads is a mess nationwide and reflects the wider crisis we have seen in local government funding."

A Green Party spokesman said their approach varies council to council and its national view is the upkeep of existing roads needs to be "prioritised" over the building of major new roads.

They said: "We're often portrayed as being anti-car and therefore not caring about potholes.

"In fact, potholes have a big impact on walkers and cyclists as well people who need to use their cars for work."

For Labour, being in power in Westminster has enabled them to set the spending allocation for councils in England.

The government announced £7.3bn for local road maintenance for the next four years, along with rules which could see some funding upheld from those councils unable to prove they are fixing potholes.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England, said: "Councils take their responsibilities to maintain and upkeep roads seriously, but the truth is that ever-increasing pressure on budgets has impacted their ability to do so as much as they'd like."

After they highlighted the backlog, the LGA said longer-term funding would help councils "more effectively plan for future maintenance schemes, focusing more on preventative measures, which will ultimately save the taxpayer money and reduce the need for repairs, and able to invest in innovation".

The RAC said the number of members who mentioned potholes when logging breakdowns on its app or by phone increased from 5,420 in the first three months of 2025 to 15,421 in the same period this year.

They believe this was connected to the wet weather and some potholes looking like puddles.

Pothole-related incidents attended by The AA decreased in 2025 compared with 2024, although the organisation's statistics show the 68,786 incidents recorded in January this year were higher than any month last year.

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