In the manifesto which presaged the landslide election of this Labour Government, there was a very specific pledge. It wasn’t an abstract promise about restoring hope, kickstarting the economy or breaking down the barriers to opportunity. No, it was there on page 33 of the manifesto as a direct, clear and accountable commitment: “We will fix an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next parliament.”

While appearing to be a very particular and precise, even noble, undertaking, it is very difficult to evaluate progress, given the lack of truly reliable data on potholes. But anyone who has driven a motor car on the 262,300 miles of roads in the UK recently will know one fact for certain: the proliferation of tyre-shredding, suspension-damaging fractures in our road network is a national disgrace, and it’s getting worse not better.

I live in rural Oxfordshire, where every car journey is undertaken at your own peril. And I’m not just talking about B roads, some of which have a profile like the surface of the Moon, and would disgrace an undeveloped country, never mind the world’s sixth-richest economy. Many of the county’s main arterial routes also have consequential holes in them that pose........

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