We have a duty to maintain the roads, but we can only fill a pothole if we know about it.
We carry out regular safety inspections of the roads and members of the public can report potholes to us on our website by reporting a pothole. Of course, potholes and other defects may occur in between inspections, especially during wet and freezing spells of weather, which is why we welcome people reporting them to us.
The severity of the pothole and, therefore, the urgency of treating it, is determined by the risk it poses to road users. This is why we inspect reported potholes and risk assess them to prioritise their repair. They’ll either be classed as urgent or will be put into a planned programme of works to ensure they are repaired as efficiently as possible.
To help us prioritise when a pothole is fixed, we take into consideration many factors that include its location, size and depth of pothole; traffic type, speed and volume; road type, alignment and visibility and also the position in relation to road width.
You can read more about how we identify, report, track and repair potholes including their prevention in our approach and methodology called 'Fixing and repairing potholes in Worcestershire'.
For more info, please see: Fixing and repairing potholes (PDF).