More than 3,000 potholes needing repairs in city

Sheffield councillors have said they are cracking down on the private company in charge of fixing potholes as thousands reported during winter remain unrepaired.

Amey has a £2.2bn contract to look after Sheffield's roads, with more than 3,000 potholes needing attention in the city, according to the contractor.

Councillor Mark Rusling, Labour lead for potholes on Sheffield City Council, said councillors had not been "strong enough" on Amey and needed more oversight of the contract.

Amey said its average response time to "temporarily repair an urgent pothole" in 2026 was under 24 hours.

Amey splits pothole repairs into urgent category one and non-urgent category two.

There were 148 urgent potholes temporarily repaired and awaiting permanent repair as of 16 June.

In addition, there were 3,075 non-urgent potholes requiring attention.

The council said hazardous potholes must be made safe within 24 hours, with Amey then having 28 days to make a permanent repair.

Resources were being redirected to reduce the repairs backlog, the authority added.

Rusling, the new chairman of the environmental services committee, said he would be meeting with Amey along with council leader Fran Belbin.

Councillors on the committee say they have received complaints about road conditions across the city and have found it difficult to navigate the system to get potholes dealt with.

Rusling said: "Sheffield has had the Streets Ahead contract for 12 years now and I don't think we have been strong enough on Amey and had democratic oversight of the things that are happening in that contract.

"There has never been a councillor on the strategic board which oversees that contract and that is something I'm changing, I'm going to sit on that board and will be speaking loud and clear."

There will be a meeting with Amey in July where potholes will discussed as a "top priority".

In future Amey will be required to put up road signs explaining timescales for repairs.

Rusling said: "There is a Department for Transport dashboard that gives councils a traffic light colour for the state of their roads.

"Sheffield is currently amber and I'm very clear I want us to be green by Christmas."

Amey said there was no monthly target for pothole repairs as it depended on many factors, including the extent of repairs.

It said a permanent repair to an urgent pothole was completed in an average of 21 days, well within the required timescale of 28 days.

An extra 65 roads which are starting to show the need for work have been added to the hundreds already on a resurfacing programme and will be "future-proofed" by an extra waterproof coating.

A report by Sheffield Council said Amey was trying to communicate better with councillors and residents.

The report said: "The backlog increased during January and February as Amey's repair teams were moved to deal with the most hazardous potholes first to make sure roads remained safe.

"This meant less urgent pothole repairs built up for a time. During April and May, more teams were moved back to these lower-priority repairs to help reduce the backlog."

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