Labour councillor hopes Mayor's £60m roads investment will address pothole problems
A Labour councillor representing Doncaster city centre on the local council has said he hopes the Mayor’s investment in road maintenance will help with potholes in his ward.
Councillor Rob Dennis believes the City of Doncaster Council teams responsible for repairing potholes and maintaining the city’s extensive road network are under significant pressure, but said a £60million investment, approved last week, could help.
During a full council meeting to approve the council budget for 2026/27, councillors approved Mayor Ros Jones’ capital spending plan, which includes £60m for road maintenance over the next four years – at £15m a year.
Mayor Jones has previously said the investment is a “record” in Doncaster, and potholes were a contentious subject during the meeting, with Reform UK’s Cllr Howard Rimmer repeatedly calling for more action on repairing local roads.
Speaking with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Cllr Dennis said: “I walk and run around the ward and in the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed an increase in larger potholes and deteriorating roads.
“Despite some roads looking in the poorer condition, the council say they aren’t in a bad enough state to be repaired.”
Councillors in the full council meeting said they had learnt that potholes needed to be 4cm deep and 6cm wide for repairs.
“With the current resource levels, it puts a pressure on them to get out and assess the roads when you report them,” Cllr Dennis added.
“However… there is £60m for potholes and road repairs which I hope will be used on roads I have reported in town ward,” he said.
Doncaster Council was given an amber rating in the Government’s new pothole repairs ranking system of local authorities.
As previously reported by the LDRS in January 2026, an interactive, online map released by the Department for Transport (DfT) categorised local authorities into one of three performance tiers – green, amber and red.
Doncaster Council joins a significant number of local highways authorities in the amber category, which means they show some qualities seen in the green tier, but have “room for improvement”.