Lancashire County Council will not publish pothole repair performance data from the winter

Data is expected to be available from April 2026

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

Over the winter period, the state of the roads was blamed on it being one of the wettest on record. It is well-established that wet weather is something that speeds up the formation of potholes.

But it wasn’t true, as reporting from The Lancashire Lead (working with the Met Office) showed.

Now it has been confirmed that data on potholes and how quickly they were repaired between October and March will not be available - making it impossible for opposition councillors and the public to draw conclusions on this period.

Keep reading below for all the details and reaction.

Lancashire briefing

🏠 Plans to build 350 homes on the former Camelot Theme Park site in Chorley have been given the go-ahead – 12 years after the first bid was made to redevelop the derelict site. A government-appointed planning inspector approved the Story Homes scheme after chairing a public inquiry into the proposal earlier this month. Andrew McGlone concluded that the development “would not be inappropriate” for its greenbelt location – judging that the Charnock Richard plot fell within a so-called ‘grey belt’ area. However, his decision has prompted fury from local politicians who have branded it “utter nonsense” and “grotesque” – and warned that it will cause chaos on the roads. Story Homes, meanwhile, said the outcome paved the way for “the transformation” of the abandoned attraction – which closed down in 2012, after 29 years in operation. The firm said the development would deliver ”much-needed homes” – half of which will be discounted ‘affordable’ properties – along with almost £5m of financial contributions towards improving local infrastructure and services. The housebuilder had twice been refused permission by Chorley Council for other visions for the site in 2014 and 2018, when it had put forward proposals for 420 and 195 homes respectively – the latter accompanied by office and workshop units.

🚮 Some Preston households may see their bin collection day changed for a second time since the spring in order to resolve problems that have arisen following a major shake-up of the city’s waste service. The overhaul came back in April when weekly food waste collections were introduced in Preston as part of a nationwide rollout. At the same time, Preston City Council redesigned its collection routes and timetables for the first time in 14 years in an attempt to make them more efficient. The move resulted in bin pick-up days changing for the majority of homes. However, the revised set-up has been beset with issues, leaving residents in some parts of the city facing repeated missed collections of all types of waste. As the Local Democracy Reporting Service has previously revealed, one street in Ashton did not have its recycling bins emptied for five weeks. The city authority has blamed the problems on the late delivery of the new wagons needed for the food waste service – and the knock-on effect that has had on all elements of their waste collection operation.

🛏️ Plans to turn a former nightclub down a ‘hostile’ back alley in Accrington town centre into apartments have been thrown out by Hyndburn Borough Council. Now functioning as a tertiary storage area and in a generally poor condition, the former Bailey’s Bar and Nightclub in an alleyway behind Dutton Street was being eyed for a major renovation into five small one-bedroom flats. Situated at the back end of the row of shops and cafes on Church Street, the application from Gulham Mohiuddin would have created new window openings and doorways to access the development from the alleyway on Back Dutton Street. However, Hyndburn planners took a dim view of the proposed flats conversion, citing a number of issues that would have resulted in ‘unacceptable living conditions for future occupants.’ The appearance of this alleyway, which would essentially be the occupants’ front porch, was seen as ‘hostile’.

---

Lancashire County Council will not publish pothole repair performance data from the winter

Road repair work being carried out in Lancashire

By Luke Beardsworth

Lancashire County Council has no plans to publish data regarding its own performance on pothole repairs over the winter period.

A meeting of Lancashire County Council’s cabinet on Thursday (2 July) will hear how there is no data available for publication from Quarter 3 and Quarter 4 of the 2025/26 financial year due to migration to a new system.

This means that there is no adequate way to assess the performance of Reform UK-led Lancashire County Council on the issue of repairing potholes during a time when the public and opposition councillors say the state of the roads deteriorated significantly.

The report sets out that Highways key performance indicators will instead be available in future from April 2026. The Lancashire Lead was told that the authority does hold the data but is unwilling to publish it because it would not give a ‘fair and accurate’ picture.

This is supported by the report which states that its new system has been ‘operationally live’ during the period and that 70,865 permanent defect repairs have been carried out.

Opposition councillors however say that the state of the roads over the winter period speaks for itself.

Cllr Mark Clifford, leader of the Lancashire Labour group, told us: “The lack of current data regarding pothole repairs is very concerning after much hype from Reform UK regarding the importance of data to drive service improvements.

“Every resident of Lancashire knows how terrible our roads have become recently. Under the Labour government LCC has received a massive uplift in their budget to fix our roads without seeing any noticeable improvement in Lancashire, it’s no wonder residents tell us they have already had enough with Reform UK.”

The Liberal Democrats go a step further and suggest that it looks like a ‘convenient excuse’ to hide the authority’s poor performance.