ROADS across the county are seemingly in a better state this year after the council announced that reports of potholes have almost halved compared to last year.
Data from the council revealed that 9,976 potholes were reported from January to June this year – a stark drop off from the 17,954 potholes reported in the same period in 2024 – a 44% difference.
This will be welcome news for the leader of Wiltshire Council, councillor Ian Thorn, who told your Salisbury & Avon Gazette back in May that fixing potholes in the county was top of the agenda following his party’s win.
The council said the improvement comes following an increased investment and dedicated efforts from the council’s highways teams and contractors.
Cllr Thorn said: “We know that we have much more to do to improve Wiltshire’s roads, but it is clear that our investment and the hard work of our teams is making a huge difference to Wiltshire’s roads.
“Seeing pothole reports fall by 44% in the first half of the year compared to 2024 is a real success story for the council.
“We know how passionate our communities are about potholes, and we share that passion for getting them repaired.
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“We also recognise that repairing the roads creates roadworks, which can be frustrating and disruptive. We’d ask residents to bear with us as our teams work to repair and resurface roads across Wiltshire.
“Every area of the county has seen more repairs and more resurfacing over the past year, and the results speak for themselves. We are committed to maintaining this momentum and improving Wiltshire’s roads.”
However, Salisbury and South Wiltshire MP John Glen said that praise must instead go to the previous Conservative-run council, not the new leadership, as the Conservatives secured the relevant funding to fix the potholes.
He said: “This is a direct result of the excellent previous, Conservative leadership of Wiltshire Council and credit must go where it is deserved, to councillor Richard Clewer for Downton and the Ebble Valley.”
East Wiltshire MP, Danny Kruger said: “This is good news, but worth remembering this funding was secured by the previous Conservative administration of Wiltshire Council and that the Lib Dems (who are now claiming the credit for fewer potholes in the county) voted against paying for these works not once, but twice.
“The credit for any reduction in potholes must go to former council leader cllr Richard Clewer for working to hard to secure the extra £20million investment in Wiltshire’s highways, which has made this work possible.”
Potholes in the Salisbury area were a point of contention in the run up to the Wiltshire Council elections last year.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage visited a pot-hole riddled street in Larkhill in April to call out the then Conservative-run council.
But Farage’s calls for improvements fell on deaf ears as it turns out the road they were drawing attention to was actually owned by the MOD – not Wiltshire Council.
This is Cllr Ian Thorn shamelessly claiming credit which should go to Cllr Richard Clewer the Conservative former leader. For half of the period in question Richard was the Council leader. It was the Conservatives that put in place the repair plans additional £20m investment funding into road repair which has enabled this improvement. Indeed the LibDems voted not once but twice against that added investment. Although the improvement results are great, his post about it is shameful undue credit taking.