I RECENTLY reported three potholes in roads in Stourport via the Worcestershire Hub website. I was pleased to see that within 24 hours the holes had been marked for repair and that they were filled in seven days.

My euphoria was, however, short-lived as less than 10 days later I discovered all three potholes had re-appeared.

I wondered if this could have been as a result of heavy rain, heavy traffic, poor workmanship or poor materials.

So I had a close look and discovered that it had been filled with a fine-grained material, probably cold lay asphalt - suitable for footpaths and private drives but not for repairing surfaces of heavily used roads.

No attempt had been made to prepare the hole for patching - the material just appears to have been shovelled into the hole.

Defects in road surfaces should be repaired by cutting out all the material surrounding the hole with straight-sided cuts and then filling the resulting area with hot asphalt and then rolling the surface to compact the repair.

This would mean longer repair times and inconvenience to road users but would only need to be done once.

I can only assume the contractors are being measured on their response time to fill in the holes and not the long-term effectiveness of the repair.

If this is the standard of workmanship then it is not worth taking the time to report the many defects that I am aware of in Worcestershire as it will only result in a waste of taxpayer's money on paying contractors to perform such poor quality repairs.

Reporting road defects through the internet to Worcestershire Hub may appear, at first, to be a great idea but it is essentially anonymous with little feedback.

The potholes I reported were two holes on the exit from the Worcester Road island into the Worcester Road and a hole in York Street on the bridge over the canal.

As a cyclist I consider the holes by the Worcester Road island to be especially dangerous as they force me to either ride very close to the kerb or to take a wide line towards the centre of the road.

I have also pointed out to Worcestershire Hub that, in my opinion, the whole of the road surface around the island should be considered for resurfacing. A trench cut in the road by OGL's offices many years ago, although filled at the time, is now in the process of breaking up.

NAME SUPPLIED Stourport