Council to trial alternatives to JCB Pothole Pro as it tackles motorists' 'bugbear'

Various methods of filling in potholes will be trialled by Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) highways team in coming months.

The team recently tested the JCB Pothole Pro on the busway between Rangefield and Reepham.

But it’s also “looking at alternatives to the Pothole Pro”, senior councillor Nigel Simons (Conservatives, Eye, Thorney and Newborough) said at a PCC full council meeting this week.

“We’ll be trying different options to ascertain their effectiveness,” he added.

The Pothole Pro works by using a ‘cut, crop and clean’ system, which sees the pothole planed by the machine.

A straight edge is then cut on the hole for a permanent fix. The waste is then swept up and the hole filled in as normal.

The machine cuts out the need for as much manual labour during the process, such as the use of jackhammers.

Milestone Infrastructure, the council’s commercial highways partner, is currently analysing the data from Peterborough’s Pothole Pro trial, Cllr Simons said.

It will be shared with councillors in due course, he confirmed, and a decision will be made as to whether the machine is a viable option for the city.

Some councils have reported that it can repair as many as seven times the number of potholes that can ordinarily be repaired in a year, PCC says.

It also says it's committed to repairing potholes.

Leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) recently described them as a “real bugbear of mine”, adding that "I know that many residents and motorists feel the same way".

He encouraged residents to report them online.

According to Cllr Simons, 2,681 potholes were repaired in Peterborough last year.