MORE THAN 1,500 potholes are recorded by the council each year with almost 3,000 being identified in 2018.

This means one pothole is found on a Wokingham borough road in every 2.27 kilometres.

Professor Nicholas Thom of Nottingham University, and UK pothole expert, said: “Potholes are not an inevitable fact of life.

“They are caused by water that gets into the road surface and is then squeezed by the action of high tyre pressures, made worse by freezing and thawing.

“Very impermeable surfaces, such as hot rolled asphalt, are extremely pothole resistant but they are more expensive and less nice to drive on.

“More permeable surfaces, as permitted by Highways England and most local authorities, are cheaper and nicer to drive on – until they fall apart and form potholes.

“So the number of potholes per kilometre on a given authority’s roads depends not only on the repair budget, repair strategy, and the climate – frosts are bad news – but also on a historical policy choice, namely what surfacing materials to use.

“It is a choice that badly needs to be reviewed.”

The figures from a Yorkshire based bicycle-insurer highlighted the number of potholes recorded by each local authority in the country.

Their research also found how much councils had spent on cycling infrastructure in the last five years.

According to The Insurance Emporium, Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) spent more than £1.5m on cycling infrastructure in the last five years.

A freedom of information request from June 2018 showed the council paid out more than £260,000 on compensating those affected by potholes from 1998-2015.

And pothole activist Mark Morrell told the News in June that it is not just drivers who suffer from poor quality roads.

He claimed: “If you look nationally over the last ten years there has been 400 cyclists injured by potholes - 22 deaths and 378 seriously injured.

“There is also a human cost to these potholes.

“Local authorities only pay out as a result of not meeting their own policies for repairs.”

Insurance Emporium's research shows that three cyclists complained about damage to their bike or about personal injuries due to having run over potholes in the borough.

No data was found for neighbouring authority Bracknell Forest Council but stats show Reading Borough Council (RBC) recorded a stunning 5,020 potholes in 2016.

RBC spent a whopping £8m on cycling infrastructure in the same year.

The authority recorded 1 pothole for every 0.72 kilometres of road.