What could local election mean for our potholes?

The number of reported potholes in Suffolk has gone up since last year, while requests for compensation have gone down.

One Suffolk garage told the BBC it had seen the number of car repairs associated with pothole damage double in the last year.

The maintenance of roads and pothole repairs are the responsibility of Suffolk County Council on all roads except those looked after by National Highways, including the A14 and stretches of the A12, A11 and A47.

County council elections are being held on 7 May, but will voters be influenced by the state of Suffolk's roads – and what do the parties say?

Married couple Carl and April Wigg have been running their car and motorbike repair garage, Carl Wigg Auto Services, in Lowestoft for 17 years.

Carl said he had noticed the number of cars coming in with repairs linked to the condition of the county's roads doubling in a year.

"The biggest tell-tale sign is the increase in ball joint failure, suspension failure or springs fail," he said.

"The state of the roads is obviously a big cause of that. People can't avoid all the potholes because there are so many of them now."

April, who runs the garage's front office, tries to help drivers recover some of their repair costs by sending reports off to the council on their behalf, but said this was not always successful.

"I think in the last 12 months, but more so since Christmas, the roads are absolutely shocking around here and people's bills are creeping up and up," she said.

"The thing is, they can't really afford it."

The county council 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.

Highways maintenance includes road and bridge repairs, gritting; verge and grass cutting; looking after pavements, kerbs and licensing of road works.

Maintenance and repairs to roads is outsourced to Milestone Infrastructure, part of M Group Services Transport Division.

It was awarded Suffolk's highways services contract in 2023 for 20 years.

It is worth in the region of £1bn, according to M Group press coverage at the time.

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

The capital budget for highways is £45m for 2026-27. The overall budget for all Suffolk County Council services is £850m.

The council has a reporting tool for road repairs and potholes.

Figures they gave the BBC 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%.

A BBC East Freedom of Information request also found 1,862 claims for compensation had been made to the council over the last five years and a total of £72,318 paid out.

The number of claims for compensation last year was just 197 compared to 429 the previous year.

The highest number of claims reported in the region were in Essex and Cambridgeshire.

Hayley Foulger lives and works around Lowestoft. She said potholes were "a huge problem. They are everywhere. It's just horrendous."

She believes they are an election issue. "It's costing everybody more money for petrol and all that kind of thing so we definitely need somebody to step up and do the potholes so it's not costing us on tyres, springs, suspension, everything," she said.

Ryan Watling, who works as a security and fire engineer and drives a van across Suffolk, said: "If my van is not safe to drive on the road, if my tyres are low, I have to take the van off the road.

"Yet a pothole can ruin my van and no-one else pays for it. It's my responsibility. It's definitely something that is annoying. If I lose my van, I lose my livelihood."

On whether it was an election issue, he said: "I think it would be something that people will consider in the local elections."

Hannah Goode and Sarah Fox are friends and often drive together.

On potholes, Goode said: "I think they've just got so much worse over the last year or so. Possibly electric cars make it worse as they are heavier, but also the council just don't repair them properly."

Fox agreed, saying: "We went over one on the A12 the other day, didn't we, and thought it had damaged my car."

She said potholes were also a safety issue as drivers could sometimes see them at the last moment and swerve around them.

Alexander Gross has lived in Lowestoft for the last 13 years and cycles around the town regularly.

He told the BBC he had managed to avoid potholes on his bike but "they are an issue, definitely. They are everywhere."

Asked if he thought potholes would be an election issue, he said: "I'm not sure how much that could affect the election.

"I haven't really made up my mind about the election. I don't know what the individuals promise or not promise in terms of potholes."

The Conservatives said: "Last year, following our investment of an extra £10m, we fixed over 22,000 potholes and, at the start of this year, we are repairing nearly double the number we were last year. We continue to invest more money than the government gives us to fix roads."

The Green Party said: "We would investigate taking the current road maintenance contract back in-house and our transport policies would reduce road wear and tear by prioritising investment in bus, train, walking and cycling infrastructure."

Labour said: "Our position is that the privatised contract isn't delivering value for money. We would look to re-negotiate the contract, to ensure the £28.8m which the Labour government has given to Suffolk County Council specifically for road repairs was better spent."

The Liberal Democrats said: "Suffolk roads desperately need money being spent on them. Well-maintained roads are not only good for cars and lorries but also for cyclists. We need to be sure highway funding is done so Suffolk does not lose any of its funding."

Reform UK said it would want to see full-depth road repairs instead of repeat patching, and penalties for failed repairs. It said it would use AI-based repair prioritisation and ban low-quality temporary fixes, except in emergency cases.

A full list of candidates can be found here.

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