What is a pothole?
Wirral defines a pothole on the carriageway as “the breaking open of a road surface, by more than 250mm x 300mm x 40 mm in depth, with sharp edges”.
Wirral defines a pothole on the footway as “the breaking open of a pavement surface, by more than 250mm x 300mm x 20 mm in depth, with sharp edges”.
This is the minimum size, but they can range up to 1000mm x 1000mm, anything more than this in size will be defined as a road defect.
What we are doing to tackle potholes
Wirral undertakes regular inspections of its roads and footways to ensure the highway is safe and achieves 100% of inspections on time, with 100% of all emergency works attended on time.
Information gathered from highways inspections and consultant surveys allows for schemes to be identified using data-driven decisions regarding treatment areas and types. Over the past 10 years, Wirral has introduced various surface treatment processes, to look after the borough’s roads. The types of road treatments used have been chosen to get the maximum benefit and best value from the work being done, so that more roads can be maintained. We also introduced new methods of pre-patching, which reduced costs further making the preparation works better value.
This proactive strategy is reducing the need for reactive repairs (like potholes) on our roads as more regular preventative maintenance means that they are less likely to form and reduces overall revenue spend. Although pothole numbers can increase due to the weather, the strategy shows numbers remaining at manageable levels. Where potholes have been identified as in need of repair, Wirral Council prioritises permanent repairs where it is safe to do so to avoid repeat visits to fix defects at the same locations.
During financial year 2025-26 we filled 2514 potholes.
How members of the public can report potholes and other highway defects
Members of the public can report potholes and other defects on the council website, using the link below, or to our call centre team 0151 606 2004 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). For emergency and out of hours calls the number is 0151 647 7810. The link for the website is:
www.wirral.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/roads-and-pavements/problems-roads-and-pavements
What happens after a pothole is reported
All reports are logged on our asset management system and sent to the local highway inspector, who will visit the site to assess the issue and, where contact details have been provided, give the customer an update on any action to be taken. Where repairs are required, the timescale for completion will be determined by a risk assessment undertaken by the inspector to determine the priority and dealt with accordingly.