POTHOLE-related breakdowns hit a five-year high in 2023, figures show.
And the damage caused will have cost motorists around £500million, officials say.
GettyPothole related breakdowns hit a five-year high in 2023[/caption]
The AA said it was called out 632,000 times to drivers whose cars had been crocked by road defects — a 16 per cent increase on 2022.
And it was the highest number since 2018 when extreme cold from the Beast from the East devastated roads across the country.
Common problems caused by potholes include punctures, distorted wheels, damaged shock absorbers and broken suspensions.
On the back of the figures, the AA was among a group who wrote to local government chiefs to call for better road repairs.
Its president Edmund King said: “We have a vicious circle of pothole formed, damage caused, pothole patched, pothole reappears with more damage caused. What we need are more permanent repairs.”
In November, PM Rishi Sunak pledged to tackle “the scourge of potholes” with an extra £8.3billion of funding over 11 years for local roads maintenance.
The Local Government Association said its members need “greater, long-term and year-on-year consistency of funding”.