Nearly 1,600 potholes and other defects have been fixed on Staffordshire’s roads in the past month, as the county council steps up its repair programme.

Highways crews have been taking advantage of the good weather to fix reported defects, with 1,591 fixed in the last month alone.

Last year, crews repaired more than 35,000 road defects across the county.

This year, the county council has ploughed a further £15.5 million into Staffordshire’s roads, with money going towards fixing an extra 9,000 potholes over the next 12 months.

The money is on top of a £50 million investment in major projects, maintenance and local improvements.

Added to this, the county council is also trialling new technologies like the pioneering JCB Pothole Pro, to see how they can help speed up pothole repairs and minimise disruption to motorists.

David Williams, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport said: “Even despite some inclement weather recently, we have still managed to repair more than 1,500 defects on our road network, and will do similar and more over the next few months.  We will also be pulling out all the stops to carry out other repairs such as gully cleaning and surface dressing.

“We are always looking at ways we can speed up repairs and minimise disruption to Staffordshire motorists, so we are constantly looking at new technology to help us achieve our aims. Our recent trial of the JCB Pothole Pro is a prime example of us looking at modern technology to see if it can benefit not only the county council, but also road users.”