Oxfordshire council calls for photos of potholes in need of repair

People have been urged to photograph potholes with their mobile phones as an Oxfordshire council ramps up repairs.

An online reporting service has been launched and an extra £250,000 is being ploughed into road repairs - enough to fill 4,000 more potholes.

Oxfordshire County Council has almost doubled its highway repair team from 10 to 19 to tackle road problems caused by months of bad weather.

It hopes to repair an average 3,000 potholes a month during spring.

'Spring clean'

People are encouraged to use mobile phones to take photographs of potholes and upload them online with details of the location.

The site features an interactive map for users to check whether the pothole they are reporting has already been logged.

Once a report been verified by highways workers, the county council's contractor pledges to repair the pothole within 28 days, 24 hours in an emergency or four hours for the most severe category.

Deputy council leader Rodney Rose said: "We know that Oxfordshire residents hate to see potholes on our roads, and so do we.

"That's why, now the winter months are nearly behind us, we're pulling out the stops to get repairs done as fast as we can, wherever they occur."

The council has spent about £5m on pothole repairs since April last year and said the increase in problems is part of a national trend.

It expects to repair about 36,000 potholes by April compared to 24,000 during an "average" year.