'County has just over 350 potholes left to repair'

Inspectors are working "rain or shine" to find and fix potholes in Suffolk, with "just over 350" now remaining across the county, according to a highways boss.

Suffolk County Council repaired 15,259 road defects from January to the end of September - 20% more than the 12,736 fixed during the same period last year.

The authority is responsible for maintaining 4,163 miles (6,700km) of roads, 6,213 miles (10,000km) of footways and 209 miles (337km) of cycleways in the county.

John Clements, assistant director for the highways department, told the BBC his "pothole repair gangs" had been working hard to keep roads in good shape.

"We've been busy looking to repair the potholes and get ourselves in a good position, ready for pothole season coming up to the winter," he said.

"At the moment, in our system, we have just over 350 potholes that we've identified and are awaiting repair, but that number varies, as I'm sure you can appreciate.

"It's a good position in terms of quite low numbers on the network, but we'll increase our number of pothole repair gangs as those numbers start to creep up."

Those numbers are likely to increase during the winter months, with wetter and freeze-thaw conditions causing parts of the road to crack and break.

The council's highways teams were particularly busy in February, for example, fixing 2,158 carriageway defect repairs, compared with 1,557 in the same month in 2025.

"We have a team of highway inspectors out there come rain or shine every day of the week looking for and identifying potholes," added Clements.

Figures given to the BBC by the council show the number of reported potholes has gone up from 13,769 in 2024-25 to 18,304 in 2025-26, a rise of 32%.

But, according to Clements, the council is as committed to fixing potholes as much as it is to "investing heavily in preventative maintenance" to stop them appearing at all.

In the last year, he said the highways team had carried out 74 miles (120km) of preventative treatments and 34 miles (55km) of road resurfacing.

"What we do is try to be more proactive, so trying to catch parts of the road network before potholes form," he said.

"The idea is that it is a more efficient and more effective use of our resources to go and put some resilience into the network."

While drivers and cyclists were still reporting potholes across the county, claims for compensation had recently significantly reduced.

A BBC East Freedom of Information request found that 197 claims were made to the council last year, compared to 429 in 2024.

Over the last five years, 1,862 compensation claims were made, and a total of £72,318 was paid out.

In February, up to 30 cars were damaged, and motorists were left stranded by the side of the B1062 between Beccles and Bungay after a pothole brought traffic to a standstill.

Julie Williamson was driving along the road when she heard a "massive bang" and felt her tyre deflate.

She said the pothole, near Deer Row, was huge and full of water, and could not be seen on the road, which has a 50mph speed limit.

"I'm surprised there wasn't another accident," she said at the time.

The county council has an £18m revenue budget for highways works, staff and operating costs for this financial year and a capital budget of £45m.

"We have to be efficient with the money we've got available," added Clements.

"Which is why we have to balance between going to deal with defects and putting money into preventative treatments.

"We want to make sure we are spending the money we do have here in Suffolk in the most effective way."

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