Council pothole repairs have more than trebled in the last three years, the Observer can reveal.
A Freedom of Information request has shown that the number of repairs carried out in Hyndburn has increased from 1,216 in 2012 to 4,049 in the last year.
The Barnfield ward, which covers a large part of Accrington town centre, has received more repairs than anywhere else with 898 being carried out in the past three years.
Lancashire County Council said they invested £48 million last year to improve the roads and the huge rise has been a result of the introduction of a new logging system which allows for potholes to be more ‘effectively and efficiently’ logged.
However Barnfield ward councillor Tony Dobson said more roads need to be completely resurfaced instead.
He said: “A large number of streets need to be completely resurfaced, and instead of doing the job properly they have just repaired the potholes.
“I don’t know how much it would have cost to keep sending people out on a pro-rata basis to repair the potholes, compared to having it resurfaced completely.
“In my ward roads like Barnfield Street, Trawden Avenue and the top of Hollins Lane are atrocious and over the last 12 months too many have had just pothole repairs which isn’t acceptable.
“It’s okay if you have a perfectly flat surface but when you have 60 potholes on a road you feel like you are driving on a cobbled street.”
County Councillor John Fillis, Lancashire County Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said they have taken a ‘new approach’ to maintaining Lancashire’s roads which has resulted in fewer potholes and with more focus now placed on ‘preventing deterioration to road surfaces’.
He said: “However, we still fill in potholes when damage to the surface occurs to ensure the roads are safe to use which is why we’ve identified and fixed the potholes on Barnfield Street, Trawden Avenue and Hollins Lane.”
He added: “We fix 97 per cent of potholes on the county’s roads within 20 days of them being reported.
“Following on from these temporary repairs, we’ll consider these streets, alongside other priority areas in Hyndburn, for resurfacing in our forthcoming annual programme.”
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