A study into the condition of roads in Cumbria and Lancashire highlights what it claims is poor performance by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

It identified Preston Old Road in Blackburn as the most potholed in the borough.

The survey by the Federation of Small Businesses also criticises Lancashire County Council for failing to provide sufficient data.

The research used Freedom of Information requests to examine how much councils budgeted for road repairs in 2022/23, how much they actually spent, and how many complaints they received about potholes.

The study also looked at how many legal claims were received for vehicle damage from potholes.

It revealed that Blackburn with Darwen Council spent £1,001,115 of its total road maintenance budget of £1,070,000 equivalent to £3,058 per mile.

The underspend of £68,885 was 6.44 per cent of that budget.

It received 1,025 complaints about road defects in 2022/23 (equivalent to 3.13 per mile) of which 28 resulted in legal compensation claims.

Preston Old Road in Blackburn was identified as the most complained about highway in the borough.

Lancashire County Council allocated a budget of £27,326,000 for road repairs but did not give a figure for how much was actually spent.

It received 536 complaints about road defects (0.12 per mile) but did not disclose the number of legal claims or the most complained about road.

FSB spokesman Gary Lovatt, said: “Blackburn and Darwen are bottom of the Lancashire table, notching up some 1,025 reports of road defects, despite spending 94 per cent of their £1,070,000 budget.

"Blackpool was the least complained about network with only 425 people reporting a problem, and only 19 legal claims.

"It’s clear than their approach of spending every penny of their £1.5m budget is paying off.

"Whilst Cumbria’s 1,952 recorded claims in 2022/23 looks concerning, Lancashire County Council’s non-disclosure of these figures makes direct comparison impossible.

"Small businesses need free flowing, well-maintained road networks to operate smoothly.

"Everybody relies on the road network."

Blackburn with Darwen Council's highways asset manager Mark Berry said: "It is difficult to compare statistics and complaints regarding road condition across a relatively small selection of authorities.

"We take all our complaints seriously and respond to each individually. We have a committed team of highways maintenance staff continuously assessing the roads.

"Our forward works programme is based on overall priority using condition information alongside other factors.

"We can confirm that lengths of Preston Old Road are being treated this financial year based upon its condition and priority.

"We inspect all our adopted roads on a regular basis and deal with any safety critical defects in a timely fashion."

"Any amount of budget not spent is carried forward into the next financial year."

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said: "Lancashire's climate means we will always have to deal with potholes.

"We identify and repair them in good time to keep our roads safe. We aim to fix 90 per cent plus of potholes reported within 20 working days.

"Over the current year we are investing around £35m in our highways with a focus on preventing potholes.

"We have greatly reduced the number of highway damage related claims we pay out.

"In 2021/22, we successfully defended over 81 per cent of the 1,331 highway claims we received."