Cheshire East Council has refuted claims it has the most open pothole reports in the UK, following statistics released by Tempcover.

The short-team insurance provider's analysis said almost 80 UK councils have potholes first reported as far back as 2007 still marked as unresolved.

The analysis, based on data from FixMyStreet.com, indicated 69 councils each have over 1,000 potholes left unrepaired.

Cheshire East Council appeared at the top of its open pothole reports list with 17,191 cases.

Chair of Cheshire East Council's highways and transport committee, Cllr Mark Goldsmith, said: "Thankfully, Cheshire East does not have 17,197 potholes as incorrectly reported in a recent national newspaper.

"Instead, at the time of this article appearing, we had 550 defects. This is across a network of almost 1,680 miles (2,700kms). 

"Last year, we fixed over 35,000 potholes, and the 550 represent a normal number that we could expect to be assessing.

"There will of course always be enquiries in the system waiting to be processed but we believe the discrepancy is due to the way reports have been showing on Fix My Street.  

"The council will soon be moving away from Fix My Street though and will be launching a new online tool.

"It will allow residents to easily report a wider variety of issues like potholes, fallen trees, abandoned vehicles and fly-tipping within their community.

"It will also more accurately record the number of potholes we have too. More details will be announced about this in the coming weeks."

According to Tempcover, among the worst places for the oldest-reported potholes with Cheshire East were Glasgow, Leeds, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cardiff, Liverpool, and Birmingham. 

Cllr Goldsmith added: "We absolutely understand the frustration that potholes cause to our residents though and we're working effectively to tackle them and are currently putting together our investment programme for 2025/26.

"We are not alone in facing this challenge, with councils across the country battling with this same issue. 

"We are using our limited budgets in the best possible way and ensuring that investment made on repairing roads is done using the right treatment, at the right place, at the right time."