The 'pothole heroes' fixing Britain's ravaged roads

Yahoo

24-03-2025

Keir Starmer has said that potholes aren't "boring" as he vowed to press councils into repairing Britain's roads.
The prime minister said that, from Monday, local authorities in England must publish annual progress reports on their plans to fix potholes or risk losing out on their share of £500m of government funding.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said this month that the cost of repairing pothole-riddled roads in England and Wales is almost £17bn, a record high.
Asked in an interview on BBC Radio 5Live if potholes were "boring", Starmer said: "There will be some people hitting a pothole this morning, and then they are picking up an average £600 bill to their car or their van.
'That isn't boring, that is really irritating. We've got far too many of them, and this is about getting that job done.'
But as patience with councils - both from the government and the public - runs thing, some people are taking matters into their own hands and either repairing potholes themselves or using unique forms of protest to highlight the problem.
Yahoo News UK takes a look at some of Britain's "pothole heroes".
Earlier this month, scaffolder Dermot McGeough, 43, said he had saved taxpayers more than £100,000 by repairing 570 potholes in Devon in the past four years.
McGeough, who is also a Conservative Party county councillor, said his efforts in the Appledore, Northam an Westward Ho! areas had saved the public £107,000.
He said: "It has been a personal challenge. I wanted to do something about the pothole nightmare in our area, and I took a hands on approach."
Read the full story from Devon Live
Landscaper and decorator Harry Smith-Haggett, 22, has found a unique way of highlighting potholes in West Sussex since last summer.
Through his Pretty Potholes campaign, Smith-Haggett fills in the potholes with flowers, then posts his creations on TikTok, with some videos having more than 3.5 million views. He has filled in more than 100 potholes in Horsham and surrounding areas.
He said: 'Everyone's already contacting the council and reporting potholes – but nothing is getting done, so I thought I'd try something different."
He said most of the potholes he had filled with flowers had later been repaired by the council.
Read the full story from The Telegraph
Ben Thornbury, 19, highlighted the pothole problem in his home town by using them to go fishing.
He staged a protest in February last year against the state of the roads around Malmesbury, Wiltshire, by pretending to fish in the large craters.
He said: "It seems like a plague across the town at the moment and it got much worse due to the winter weather.
"So many people have reacted in a positive way and told me thanks for raising awareness."
Thornbury has also highlighted the problem by creating a crazy golf course out of the town's potholes.
Read the full story from Yahoo News UK
In January, residents of a village in Wales, tried to raise awareness of their pothole problem by turning it into a tourist attraction.
They put up signs around Pontfadog in Wrexham advertising "Pothole Land".
The tongue-in-cheek sign read: "Two kilometres of award winning potholes with very little actual road to spoil your fun."
Read the full story from Sky News
In February, a frustrated father sick of the state of the roads in his village made a rather bizarre protest.
Carpenter James Coxall, 41, made a set of fake legs and put them in a huge pothole puddle on Haverhill Road in Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire.
He said the pothole, which was 3ft wide and four inches deep, had been on the road for eight months.
Read the full story from Cambridgeshire Live
Jenny Paterson, 75, filled in the potholes outside her home in the village of Halkirk, Caithness, Scotland, last summer.
She carried out the job on what she called a "12ft crater" with the help of a neighbour using gardening tools.
However, a spokesperson for the Highland Council said "it is not appropriate for individuals to undertake repairs on the public highway".
Read the full story from The Guardian
In April 2022, it was reported that pensioner Elizabeth Williams spent more than £4,000 of her own money to fix potholes on her street.
The 89-year-old paid for the repair of the potholes at Wyncote Court in Newcastle-upon-Tyne despite not owning a car.
She said: "The potholes were absolutely dreadful. I just wanted to do something about it. It's also a gift to my neighbours, who are very nice, and to our estate."
Read the full story from Yahoo News UK
The most famous "pothole hero" is probably singer Rod Stewart, who posted a video on his Instagram account in March 2022 which showed him repairing the damaged road near his home in Harlow, Essex.
In the clip, Stewart was dressed in a tracksuit and a hi-vis jacket while shovelling and singing.
He said: "This is the state of the road near where I live in Harlow and it's been like this for ages.
"So me and the boys thought we would come and do it ourselves."
Read the full story from The Telegraph