THERE was great news for Perrott's Brook, near Cirencester, as two potholes were repaired this week. 

Councillor Paul Hodgkinson, a resident at Perrott's Brook, tweeted on July 29 about two potholes which had not been repaired two months after being marked for repair.

According to Cllr Hodgkinson, the potholes near the A435 had been in a poor state for six months.

A spokesperson for Amey, Gloucestershire County Council's highways contractor, responded on August 2 that the potholes, categorised as 'non-safety defects', had a deadline completion of six months and that it was hoped they would be repaired by mid-to-late August.

And indeed, it was good news on Wednesday, August 17 when Cllr Hodgkinson tweeted the resurfaced road, saying: "Sorted! Potholes in Perrotts Brook resurfaced by @GlosCC after call by me and @WiltsAndGlosStd".

He said: "It's really good that they've fixed that bit of road now. They've done it well and local residents are very happy about that.

"It's just a shame that it took a combination of me as a local councillor and the Standard covering it to get highways to do what they should've been doing in the first place.

"It really shouldn't take such effort for what should be a simple thing.

"The process is flawed and the contractor should be on the case on all of these poor roads and fixing them. And they don't appear to have enough staff."

On seeing the success of Cllr Hodgkinson's efforts to tweet the unrepaired potholes, another Twitter user took it on himself to tweet the potholes in Down Ampney too:

Kath Haworth, area highways manager of Gloucestershire County Council, said: “All our roads are regularly inspected and any works are prioritised based on national guidelines.

"The potholes on Perrott’s Brook were picked up this way and were scheduled to be repaired within six months.

"As there wasn’t a safety defect, the work became part of our patching programme and was completed on August 16.”