A new team of Shropshire Council inspectors will carry out checks of the authority’s pothole repairs.

The council said it is introducing a new, “more stringent regime” for inspecting road repairs made by its contractors, reports the Shropshire Star. The news comes after Highways News reported that residents of several villages in Shropshire were taking part in a pilot scheme that would see undertake ‘minor’ road repairs.

Heather Kidd, Shropshire Council leader, said:

“For too long, road repairs have not been inspected properly, allowing indifferent workmanship to go unchallenged, with poor repairs opening up after far too short a time.

“We now have restructured our road repair regime, allowing a local contractor with a proven reputation for efficiency to take over the lions’ share of the repair work and we have secured an extra approximately £1.5M from the Government for extra road repairs.

“However, to make sure future repairs are of a high standard, the council is introducing a team of inspectors to inspect all completed road repairs. If they are not up to standard, they will insist that the work be redone. A number are now in place with more to follow.

“Given the heavy use of our roads, potholes will continue to appear, however. So I urge the public to continue reporting any new holes, plus any instances of uncompleted repairs [and] diversions not signposted.”

(Picture: Paul Hutton/Highways News)