Potholes are making life a misery for drivers all over Hyndburn. The recent bad weather has caused potholes to appear in roads all over the borough.
And while Lancashire County Council is carrying out temporary patch ups, permanent repairs to the roads could be months away.
The Oswaldtwistle Conservative councillor, Doug Hayes, said: "There’s a lot of bad roads in and around Hyndburn and there’s some hellish potholes about. There’s been a lot of damage with the bad weather – the frost has been breaking up the roads."
Coun Brian Walmsley, who is also a Conservative councillor for Oswaldtwsitle, said: "I feel sorry for some of those in smaller cars, it’s them that’ll take all of the damage. There’s going to be millions of potholes in the next few weeks."
Potholes form when water gets into cracks in the surface of a road, freezes, expands and then thaws.
The repeated freeze-thaw cycle of the recent bad weather, its timing and its length are being blamed for making the problem worse this year.
Christopher Eastham, owner of Columbia Motors on Spring Street in Rishton, said he had noticed a definite rise in the number of cars damaged by potholes.
He said: "With the snow and ice we do do a heck of a lot springs. It’s a noticeable increase over the last few years. At the moment we’re doing between five and ten a week.
"The best advice is just to drive round potholes, but that can be really hard to do. A lot of them haven’t been fixed from last year."
Mohammed Arif, chairman of Accrington Taxi Association, said that the holes made taxi drivers’ lives very difficult.
He said: "The potholes have definitely got worse in the bad weather and taxi drivers have to be extra careful as the upkeep of our car is our living."
Huncoat independent councillor Dave Parkins praised the council’s efforts and urged people to report potholes.
He said: "It is a problem. After this frost I’ve noticed these last few weeks with the freezing weather there's potholes everywhere. It’s terrible. "I've always worked closely with the county council and I just go in and report them. The council can only respond to people ringing in. They do the best they can, they do a good job."
This year the county council will invest around £5m in highways maintenance, in addition to almost £11m received from government, bringing the total investment in Lancashire to around £16m. Another £2m may be available this year if the savings targets set out in the council’s overall budget are achieved.
A spokesman for Lancashire County Council highways department said that while temporary repairs were being carried out, sites for permanent repairs would not start to be identified until next month.
He said: "We’re investing a similar amount of money this year, as last year, in highway maintenance to make sure that the bad winters don’t result in the overall condition of the highways worsening.
"We categorise potholes in terms of seriousness as they are reported and aim to fix 95 per cent of those identified as potentially dangerous within 24 hours.
"A condition survey will be conducted at the end of February which will be used to decide priorities for resurfacing next year."
To report a pothole to Lancashire County Council, call 0845 0530011.
