Political Opinion: Potholes - Why Notts County Council should embrace innovation
Potholes are more than a routine maintenance issue. They damage vehicles, put road users at risk, and steadily undermine public confidence in local authorities.
For highway teams facing rising demand and constrained budgets, repeatedly patching the same defects with traditional methods is no longer sustainable.
In Mansfield, that reality prompted me to bring the JCB Pothole Pro to the town for a live demonstration back in March, to see whether it could genuinely change how we maintain our roads and hoping that it might be adopted by Notts County Council to fix our roads in Mansfield.
Too often, pothole repairs involve multiple vehicles, several operatives, lengthy traffic management, and repairs that fail far too quickly.
The JCB Pothole Pro offers a fundamentally different approach, combining cutting, cleaning, tack coating, and filling into a single, efficient process operated by one person. The Mansfield demonstration was about proving this wasn’t just a sales pitch or a photo opportunity, but a practical solution.
What we saw on the day was compelling. The Pothole Pro completed clean, square-cut repairs in a matter of minutes, with minimal disruption.
The quality of finish was immediately obvious, and just as importantly, the process significantly reduced the time operatives spent working on repairs. For those watching, from highways staff to councillors, the efficiency was hard to ignore.
The results echoed what has already been evidenced elsewhere, notably in the Stoke-on-Trent case study.
There, the highway authority recorded faster repair times, reduced crew requirements, and a clear improvement in repair longevity.
Stoke’s experience showed fewer repeat defects, less reliance on traffic management, and better use of limited maintenance budgets. Seeing the same principles applied in Mansfield reinforced the credibility of those findings.
Since the demonstration, it has become clear that the real value of the Pothole Pro lies in its durability. Better preparation leads to longer-lasting repairs, reducing the costly cycle of returning to the same defects time and again. That means more of the network can be treated, not just the most urgent failures.
Bringing the JCB Pothole Pro to Mansfield was about challenging old assumptions. The evidence, from the demonstration itself and from proven case studies like Stoke-on-Trent, shows that modern, smarter technology can deliver safer roads, better value for money, and outcomes the public can trust.
I am aware that Notts County Council evaluated the machine in the summer after I had bought it to Mansfield but no further action was taken. That is disappointing but given they now have a 43 per cent rise in their budget for road repairs from the Labour government, it is now time for the Council to take this seriously and get on board with innovation.