Oldham Road has been revealed as England’s worst road, following a series of FOI requests to find out which roads have received the most complaints over the past 12 months.
For the second consecutive year, Car Parts 4 Less have conducted research to reveal the worst roads in England to drive on, with Oldham Road officially the ‘Worst Road in England’.
Using council data gathered through Freedom of Information requests, Car Parts 4 Less created an online tool highlighting the worst roads from the past 12 months in order to help drivers avoid the worst routes.
The road wracked up a grand total of 741 complaints in 2016/17 and costs the council over £24,000.
Potholes cost UK drivers almost £684 million in car repairs annually, with one pothole compensation claim made every 17 minutes. Many disgruntled drivers have taken to social media sites to voice their complaints.
In 2015, Manchester was given £19,851,000 by the government for the maintenance of local highways until 2021. In 2016/17, Manchester City Council spent only £24,791.24 of this on the maintenance and repair of the most complained about road, Oldham Road. This was the largest amount spent on any road in the last 12 months by Manchester City Council.
Nathan Blake, 23, from Manchester said: “I try to avoid Oldham Road as much as possible but sometimes I have to use it to drive into the town centre. It’s full of potholes and I always worry about damaging my car – I got a flat tyre from a pothole just the other week!”
In 2016/17, the UK government spent £4.5 billion on road maintenance, compared to the four year high of £4.6 billion in 2014/15. The Department for Transport 2017 funding allocation awarded £70 million of the Pothole Action Fund to repairing potholes over 2017/18.
Four out of five councils that spent the most on a single road’s maintenance in 2016/17 are based in the South – that’s two more than during the 2015/16 period. Berkshire has been in the top five spends both years running.
A spokesperson from Car Parts 4 Less said: “It interesting to see this year’s worst and most expensive roads in direct comparison to last year. Once again the North West has the number one most complained about road, and year after year the South are spending the most on road maintenance.
“Although this tool won’t fix the offending roads for drivers, it should help driver’s awareness of the worst roads and which to avoid to protect their car from damage!”
