Repairing York potholes a 'juggling act' - council

Maintaining York's historic roads is a complex "juggling act" due to its unique network, a senior city councillor has claimed.

A fifth of York's residential roads are currently in need of repair - down from a third a year ago - according to the city council's executive member for transport Kate Ravilious.

Planned highway maintenance has been paused until 2027 to reduce disruption during the busy York Christmas Market period.

"Just because of the number of visitors, the number of businesses and the number of deliveries coming in and out, there's so much going on that it does make it a really challenging place to do those works," Ravilious said.

The council repaired 11,892 potholes in the 2025/26 financial year - an increase from 9,074 in 2024/25.

Ravilious said the authority prioritised longer term improvements rather than "constantly reacting to filling potholes", but did still carry out targeted repairs due to the "safety aspect".

"We focus a lot on the preventative repairs which give a lot more longevity to the roads," she said.

A garage owner in the city estimated that up to a fifth of the work carried out at his three sites could be attributed to potholes.

"There's an awful lot of it - there's some serious-sized potholes in York," said Pete Gough, of York Auto Services.

"Unanimously, customers across the board yesterday from one of my garages were all quite adamant that the potholes in York were beyond reasonable."

Gough said most repairs related to potholes were of vehicle suspension systems.

"The spring extends to a point it isn't normally extended to, too much pressure's created into the ball joint and it wears things prematurely," he explained.

"These parts are designed to move up and down, not hit things hard."

Hitting a pothole could also cause a spring to snap or a tyre to burst, Gough said, potentially costing motorists hundreds of pounds.

"Something that you would expect to last four or five years is lasting two years," he added.

At the beginning of 2026, the AA said it had responded to 17% more pothole-related call-outs nationally than in January 2025.

In February 2026, the RAC responded to 4,448 more "pothole incidents" than in February 2025.

According to Dave Atkinson, City of York Council's director of environmental and regulatory services, increasing numbers of potholes are caused partly by funding challenges and partly by the climate.

"We've got a real challenge with increased amounts of wet weather and increased amounts of dry weather, which are doing different things to the road surface, breaking them up," he said.

"It makes treating potholes and resurfacing more challenging."

An additional challenge in York, his colleague Steve Wragg added, is that the city is "a very tightly-bound urban area".

Wragg, head of highway asset management, leads a team which processed more than 1,000 applications for permits to work within the highway every month - with requests including dropped kerbs, skips or a full road resurfacing.

The "really complex job" involves balancing the number of projects happening in one area at once in order to limit disruption on commutes and school travel.

"We try and keep the network moving for the users of the network, but do it in a safe way for those undertaking the work but also those using the network," he said.

A further challenge is caused by York's heritage, Ravilious said.

"Replacing the paving with the right kind of paving stones, or looking after the city walls is also part of the highway works, believe it or not," she added.

"We've got a really diverse set of assets to look after."

She said maintenance works were prioritised based on condition, with "a bit of extra priority" given to public transport and cycling routes.

Feedback from residents and local councillors was also taken on board, as "they know their own area best".

"I think the thing that's difficult to understand is the juggling act we have to do," Ravilious said.

"Although residents might get frustrated that it seems like one bit of road never gets fixed, it could be because it's really hard to get in there, and when we do it's very disruptive."

She added: "We know the roads still have lots of poor areas, but we're really going in the right direction and that's great to see."

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