DRIVERS who thought the potholes and cracked roads left by last year’s big freeze were bad are being warned there is far worse to come. Experts are predicting the recent bad weather could lead to the ‘worst ever pothole season’.

And that’s bad news for local councils who are still busy repairing last year’s road defects, at huge expense.

Dorset County Council has filled almost 17,000 potholes, Bournemouth has repaired more than 2,000 and Poole said it has dealt with almost 2,000 orders to repair potholes since January, 2010.

Duncan McClure Fisher of insurance provider Warranty Direct, which runs the road maintenance campaign Potholes.co.uk said it was hard to see how councils would be able to tackle the worst ever pothole season in the light of budget-trimming across the country.

He added: “Given the severity and earlier than normal arrival of harsh wintry conditions, everything is pointing towards a miserable period for motorists.”

John Sayers, principal engineer of Poole Borough Council said that the number of potholes in 2009/10 was four times what they expected and there had been ‘an unprecedented increase’ in pothole repair orders since April, 2010.

He added: “The combination of reductions in maintenance budgets and successive years of extreme winter conditions would lead us to expect a further increase in potholes.”

Bournemouth Borough Council cabinet member for resources, John Beesley, said the council, through Road Rescue, has set aside a contingency fund to tackle any potholes created during the winter.

He added: “Further improvement works are to take place early next year in Charminster, Moordown and the town centre.”

A Dorset County Council, spokesperson said there was a 35 per cent increase in the number of potholes and other carriageway defects in the last financial year (2009-10).

He added: “We check each road at least every six months for any defects. We also invite members of the public to report them.”