Potholes and faults in the roads have caused 15 deaths or serious injuries across Kent in the space of four years, new data has revealed.

The county has the highest number of pothole-related deaths between 2018 and 2022 in the country.

It has recently been announced that Kent County Council and Medway Council are to receive a cash boost of almost £150 million to “tackle the scourge of potholes” and other road issues.

A Freedom of Information request to all police forces in the UK revealed, there had been two deaths between 2018 and 2022 directly related to potholes. Only Durham had the same amount in that period.

The number of injuries in that period is 13 – significantly lower than some other areas. London, for example, has seen no deaths related to potholes but 51 injuries.

There has been a relatively high number of incidents on parts of the road that are under roadworks – with five people being killed and 45 injured.

Earlier this year, Kent County Council vowed to get on top of the pothole problem in time for winter.

Dubbed “car killers”, the council received 26,000 reports in three months leading up to April, but bosses pledged to have the majority fixed by the end of autumn.

In September, however, key performance indicators (KPIs) showed that the highways team and its contractors have fallen short on five of six targets for 2023.

Figures from Kent County Council for April to June showed a sharp increase year on year in the number of potholes needing repair.

The report noted: "The number of potholes requiring repairs...was 5,376 which was over 50% higher than for the same period last year. The increase in demand was mainly due to the weather.

"The Highways Management team continues to work with Amey [the contractor] to ensure performance gets back to the target level."

However, on Friday (November 18), Transport Secretary Mark Harper set out the allocations of an £8.3 billion national long-term plan to repair and resurface more than 5,000 miles of road across the country over the next 11 years.

Local highway authorities in the south east, including Kent, East and West Sussex, Surrey, and Hampshire, will each receive a share of £734 million, which they can use to identify what local roads are in most need of repair and deliver immediate improvements for communities and residents.

Kent will be given a total of £134,531,000 to spend on mending the county’s potholes and other road damage, and Medway will receive £12,552,000.

Kent County Council was contacted for comment regarding the pothole figures.