Why hasn't my pothole been fixed yet?

Some potholes are fixed within a day or two, where the council team can find the hazard quickly and the weather is good enough for a fix. Others can take longer.

Wet or cold weather can prevent a long-lasting fix, so the highway maintenance team may fill the hole as a temporary measure. They will then return when the weather has improved to effect a more permanent and high-quality fix.

Councils typically have defined "intervention levels", such as "at least 40mm deep". These vary by council, but are used to help prioritise which potholes need fixing and which don't appear to pose too much of a hazard to road users. This is important in winter when each authority can potentially have up to ten thousand pothole reports to handle. Sadly these levels are generally set with motor vehicles in mind, and they don't allow for the fact that even shallow holes can potentially catch a cyclist's front wheel and cause them to be thrown off without warning. So if you consider even a shallow road defect to be dangerous for cyclists, please do still report it!

Some potholes are never fixed, because the road foundations aren't strong enough, and completely re-building the road isn't possible.