Hundreds of Staffordshire potholes tackled by road teams

County council bosses have said they have send out 20 teams across the county to fix the worst potholes in Staffordshire to help blitz the winter road damage.

Hundreds of potholes have been repaired in roads in Stafford, Rugeley, Great Wyrley, Cannock, Cheslyn Hay and Codsall during last week's blitz. It comes as the council invests a further £500,000 to tackle repairs on major routes around the county.

Ian Turner, the council's head of highways operations, said: "Our highways crews are really pulling out all the stops to tackle the worst potholes caused during the winter. The heavy rain, ice and snow really has taken its toll on our roads, but we are doing our very best to fix as many potholes as we can, as quickly as we can.

"Although more potholes have been identified, we are also repairing many more than we did last year, but it is an on-going challenge and I would ask people to bear with us."

Potholes are caused when the repeated freeze-thaw process causes road surfaces to weaken.

Mr Turner said the stress of traffic then leads to the surface rupturing and potholes forming in the road, and extra crews will now be working on repairing the worst potholes over the coming weeks.

Residents can follow where crews have been by checking out the daily location updates at www.staffordshire.gov.uk/potholes

In the first part of this year, as temperatures hit record lows, 4,000 potholes were reported across Staffordshire. Around 2,800 were reported for the same time last year.

Meanwhile more than 800 potholes have been repaired in South Staffordshire over the last two months, transport bosses said.

Council bosses say they fixed around 820 between February and March – almost 40 per cent up on last year. Repairs are continuing this month and this week workers have been out at Wolverhampton Road, Codsall, and roads in Pendeford, Chillington and Brewood.