British councils disagree about when hole becomes a pothole

When is a pothole not a pothole? It may sound a simple question, but councils up and down the country have failed to agree on an answer. More than two million potholes need fixing in Britain following the winter freeze, but a baffling array of official definitions regarding what exactly constitutes a pothole means that motorists and pedestrians face a postcode lottery of highway standards.

In Gloucestershire, a hole in a road must be the depth of a "golf ball" (1.6in, 40mm) and the width of a "large dinner plate" (11.8in, 300mm) before the county council will regard it as a pothole. Worcestershire county council will accept a smaller "dinner plate" width hole (7.9in, 200mm) in surface area, while requiring the hole to be the depth of a "fist" (1.6in).

To assist residents in Coventry the council has devised what it calls an "easy way to remember" what it deems the depth of a priority pothole; "a pound coin and a 1p coin side by side" (1.6in).



In Suffolk, roads officers agree with Gloucestershire that a serious pothole must be the width of a "large dinner plate" (11.8in) – unless the defect is on a minor road, when it must be about the size of a "dustbin lid" (23.6in, 600mm) to warrant urgent action.

In Bath and North East Somerset a crack in the road only needs to be 1.2in (30mm) deep before it counts as a pothole, whereas in Cheshire West and Chester inspectors are charged with identifying only holes deeper than 2in (50mm). In Hounslow, traffic officers will fix potholes on residential streets only if they meet "intervention levels" of 3in (75mm) in depth.

Some councils' policies stipulate four or more different categories of priority depending on a pothole's depth and width. Nearly all assess potholes in roads in a different way from those on footpaths.