A cyclist has questioned how quickly Cambridge’s “broken roads” will be fixed to prevent more accidents caused by damaged roads.

Lewis Herbert, who is also a former leader of Cambridge City Council, said he spent four nights in hospital after suffering multiple fractures and a broken collarbone from hitting a pothole while cycling.

He said the pothole he hit had been reported to Cambridgeshire County Council months before he hit it.

Mr Herbert said cyclists in Cambridge “deserve far greater priority” when decisions are made about fixing roads.

At a county council meeting on December 12, he said: “Can the council advise how effectively and quickly it will tackle broken roads and properly fill potholes in Cambridge and market towns heavily used by local cyclists, motorbikes, and vulnerable pedestrians, and improve the safety of local people, and reduce the number of accidents caused by damaged roads last winter.”

Councillor Alex Beckett, chair of the highways and transport committee, said he was sorry to hear about Mr Herbert’s accident, and said he knew how serious the effect potholes can have on people cycling.

He said: “One of the things we are looking at doing is building an active travel hierarchy, which looks at how we can make sure we are deploying resources to fix potholes where they have the biggest safety impact, and recognising that cycle desire lines can often have a very different impact compared to road users.

“That is work that is ongoing and we look forward to that coming forwards.

“This council is also putting together one of the biggest investments in highways maintenance that we have seen for a very long time.

“We have recognised that there has been decades of underinvestment in highways maintenance and that has seen a lot of the poor standards that we currently have on our roads.

“It is clear to me that we do need a significant amount of investment in that, so I look forward to that coming forwards and seeing what a difference we can make to our residents to help improve the state of their roads across the county.”