THERE has been a sharp uptick this year in reports of potholes in a county’s roads, despite the local authority administration having made dealing with them a priority.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request, Herefordshire Council said that so far this year it has logged 9,313 pothole reports – more than three times the figure of 2,967 for the whole of 2025.

The county borders north and west Monmouth and includes part of Manson Lane, plus the villages of Welsh Newton, Llangrove, Llangarron, Ganarew, Whitchurch and Symonds Yat West.

This in turn marked a near-doubling of the previous year’s figure, of 1,641, according to the council’s response.

The figures include not only reports from the public but also from routine inspections by the council’s contractors.

There has also been a jump this year in the share of claims for pothole-related vehicle damage that the council has paid out on, from 5.75 per cent of claims in 2025, to just over 16 per cent in the current year to August.

The total paid out to drivers has gone up even more, from 2025’s £5,688.57, to £31,080.26 up to this August.

The largest single payout so far this year has been to the owner of a BMW 520d who received £3,718.22.

The FOI request did not seek the total number of such claims.

However, the council did confirm does not use external legal teams to defend itself against such claims.

Meanwhile the amount the council has spent on pothole repairs has not changed greatly over the past three financial years, its response shows, going from £3.3 million in 2023/24 to £4,06 million in 2024/25, then back to £3.44 million in 2025/26.

Last month the congregation and officials at How Caple Church produced a 2027 calendar, which features colour photographs of just some of the axle-bending craters in our county’s roads.

Herefordshire council did not respond when asked why the figures for reports and claims had risen so sharply.