Cabinet member responds as survey brands Barnet Britain’s worst for potholes reports David Floyd

A ground level image of a pothole — A pothole in Castlewood Road, New Barnet

A Barnet Council cabinet member has rejected research findings that showed the borough to be the Britain’s worst local authority for potholes.

Cllr Alan Schneiderman said the research – conducted by SmartSurvey based on data from the app FixMyStreet – was “misrepresentative of the facts”, as council data reveals a big increase in the numbers of potholes repaired in 2023.

The survey reports that Barnet had 4,656 reported potholes as of January 29^th 2024, an average of 12 potholes per 1,000 residents. This put the borough ahead of the next worst local authority, Glasgow, which has 11.7 potholes reported per 1000 residents.

The next London borough on the list is Richmond upon Thames, which has a dramatically lower level of reports at 2.6 per 1000.

The data used in the survey reflects reports made by the public via FixMyStreet, a website developed by the charity MySociety, that enables citizens to report problems (including “graffiti, fly tipping, broken paving slabs, or street lighting”) to local authorities based on inputting their postcode and details of the issue.

The data covers all reports currently available on the site – with the first reported pothole dating back to May 2012 – and only includes potholes that have been reported via FixMyStreet.

This means that the fact that Barnet has proportionately more reports than any other area is indicative of a major issue with potholes in the borough but does not give a full picture of the current situation.

Figures released by Barnet Council following a Freedom of Information request made earlier this year show that the numbers of potholes repaired by the council each year since 2020 were as follows:

2020 – 2394

2021 – 3088

2022 – 2848

2023 – 5071

Responding to the survey claims, Cllr Alan Schneiderman, the council’s cabinet member for environment & climate change told Barnet Post: “Tackling potholes is a key commitment for us as a new administration following the local elections in May 2022.

“We are proposing to invest over £100million over five years to repair roads and tackle potholes.

“The data cited is also misrepresentative of the facts. The most urgent potholes are fixed within 24 hours and all others between seven and 28 days.

“Barnet is disproportionately affected by potholes with one of the largest road networks in London. Barnet also has amongst the highest volume of vehicle movements a day in London of which 1000 are HGVs.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else. £84 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month's before anyone else.