New research has revealed the most dangerous rural roads for young drivers as data shows they are more likely to crash and be killed on country roads than any other age group.

Motorists aged 17-24 are already known to be involved in a disproportionate number of accidents but the research released by the AA Charitable Trust has found that they are also at greater risk on rural roads compared with other age groups and other road types.

The research, by Agilysis and the Road Safety Foundation, found that 71 per cent of all young driver fatalities take place on rural roads. Department for Transport figures show that across all age groups, 57 per cent of all deaths occur on rural roads.

Residents in a Shropshire village say potholes are so common they amount to “tax” on rural drivers.

Businessman Ian Field, who lives in Beckbury, says he has spent £6,000 on vehicle repairs in the last two years.

He has written to the government with a dossier of photographs showing a dozen large potholes.

He says they are strewn across all major routes into the village and many of them are deep, posing a danger to vehicles.

“I’d go as far to say that this is akin to an additional tax for residents or a small business operating in a rural area – you simply wouldn’t have this in a major town,” he said.

A Shropshire Council spokesman said the local authority was “working hard to identify and tackle potholes and other defects”.

He said the number of potholes typically increase by about a fifth at this time of year and the recent weather had “amplified the problem”.

Half of drivers (49%) say the condition of local roads has deteriorated since last year, primarily as a result of potholes and other road-surface problems.

Only one in 10 (11%) believe the roads in their area have improved, with around four-in-10 (40%) saying there was no real change in the past 12 months, according to the 2019 RAC Report on Motoring.

There appears to be a clear town-versus-country divide in terms of road maintenance with drivers based in rural locations being almost 10% more likely to say their local road conditions have worsened in the past 12 months (rural 58% v UK average 49%).

Meanwhile, 25% of London-based motorists say conditions are in fact better this year, against the UK-wide average of 11%.

While potholes and related road-surface problems take most of the blame for worsening conditions, they are not drivers’ sole concerns.

There has been a sharp rise in dissatisfaction about grass and foliage maintenance on local roadsides, with 22% of drivers saying this is one reason conditions are worse.