Why we are highlighting the potholes issue

A comment overheard this week: ‘In Britain we used to drive on the left of the road - now we drive on what’s left of the road!’ It could not have been more appropriate. Some of our roads are in a simply shocking state. They are scarred and pitted with potholes posing an increasingly serious threat to life. Daily you see cars swerving to avoid them - and the immense damage they can do to a car. It’s not the fault of our city and county councils. Their budgets have been slashed back and we know they are doing everything they can within limited resources. But enough is enough. For some time now the PT and indeed our sister titles across the region and the whole of the UK have received a high number of complaints from readers about the state of the roads. The dramatic changes in weather and temperature of the past week or so has greatly exacerbated this. Public concern has never been greater. In response, we have decided to launch a Pothole Watch campaign to coincide with National Pothole Day.

The aims are to:

Engage with you our readers in highlighting the worst potholes Work with our councils to help address them

This collaborative work may well involve an approach to government for more funding. During the course of the campaign, we will be looking at how our councils currently work round the clock to maintain our roads, how complaints about potholes are handled, and where legal responsibility lies for damage to a vehicle. We will also be focusing on getting the worst potholes that you identify repaired as quickly as possible. So if you share our concern, please support this campaign - and without jeopardising your own safety send us photos and videos of the potholes that concern you the most. >Mark Edwards >@PT Mark Edwards