Nottinghamshire road inspectors urge public to ‘stop and talk’ amid surge of abuse linked to pot holes

Via East Midlands, which maintains the county’s roads and pavements, says it has noticed more and more abuse is being levelled at workers while they assess damaged roads.

It says this coincides with a surge in new pothole reports caused by recent bad winter weather.

The contractor repairs roads on behalf of Nottinghamshire Council and oversees almost 3,000 miles of carriageways.

However, inspectors say they are now regularly receiving abuse and hostile behaviour from some members of the public when investigating or repairing potholes, when previously incidents were rare.

They have urged residents to instead speak with them about the work they provide and say their priority is keeping the public safe.

Wayne Prince, Via’s highways inspection and risk manager, said: “I’d ask the public to bear with our staff, they are there to make the roads safe. Stop and talk to them, they’re happy to chat, but please be polite.

“They’re looking at defects in the highway that could cause you harm and they’re here to help.”

Via’s inspectors are alerted to road damage through reports from residents or during annual road inspections, which are held on all Nottinghamshire roads.

If they find a potential “safety defect”, a temporary “spot repair” is planned within 24 hours.

The road is then reported to other departments to assess whether it could benefit from future resurfacing works. If this is the case, they are added to a long-term programme – with early inspections helping to “build a picture” of each road.

However, inspectors say recent weather caused a noticeable rise in the number of incidents they are attending.

A ‘cold snap’ in December led to a ‘freeze-thaw’ effect, causing existing cracks in roads to worsen. Heavy rainfall throughout December and into January damaged roads further and led to more potholes appearing – sometimes overnight.

Tony Green, a senior highways inspector, said: “This year has been a massive increase, it’s been phenomenal the number of reports coming in.

“The roads seemed to struggle and potholes were blowing out a lot more, so the winter has hit us hard … more so than any other year I can remember.

“But we’ve we’ve coped and brought in more resources to deal with that and kept on top of it.”

Coun Neil Clarke, cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “I do ask the public to please be kind to them. They’re working on your behalf to make roads safer.

“Whilst it may be frustrating and there’s room for improvement, they’re doing what they can to help.”

The authority conducted a cross-party review in 2021 to improve its road maintenance.

This concluded the council and Via should shift from temporary fixes towards permanent road replacements.

Before recent bad weather, temporary repairs fell by 61 per cent while the length of roads resurfaced by new patching gangs more than doubled.