A STAGGERING 45,000 potholes have been repaired across Worcestershire in just 18 months - with the ultimate driver's scourge showing no signs of respite.

Since April last year highways workers have had to tend to around 83 potholed patches of road every single day, clocking up around 45,701 jobs.

Your Worcester News can also reveal how they are expecting to repair another 15,000 by next April, by which time 60,000 will have been restored in two years.

It comes as council chiefs urge drivers to carry on helping in the battle - admitting it is proving "impossible" to find every defect.

The data has been released by Worcestershire County Council in a new report, which reveals the efforts being made to keep the roads ticking over.

It means around 83 potholes daily are getting attention, a figure which rose to 200 during the colder winter months at the start of this year.

Bosses at County Hall say their internet-based 'Report It' service, which allows people to email in their own snaps of riddled roads, is giving them a serious upper hand in getting out there quickly.

Councillor John Smith, the cabinet member for highways, said: "There's nothing better than the human eye, but unfortunately it's impossible for us to inspect every defect on the road.

"We use technology, that has its limits - 95 per cent of the time what it does is very good, it's not always as good as we'd like it to be but certainly the reports we are getting online are very useful to us."

The Conservative did a Q&A with other councillors where he also said he intended to intensify the work on white line painting.

Some £500,000 will go on new painting this financial year in a bid to make the network look better.

"I have a particular view, as far as people's perspectives on what is a good highway or a bad highway, that a lot of it is not about the condition of the road - it's the things like good signing and good road markings," he said.

To try and prevent more cracks and divots appearing this winter, back in the summer £4.5 million went towards the biggest ever surface dressing programme which saw 300 roads spruced up, as we revealed in June.

The council report also says £800,000 of taxpayers' cash will go on grass cutting and verge maintenance this financial year.

Since April 18,000 gullies have been emptied and as part of the winter preparations for the roads 1,200 grit bins have been filled.

The council has 17,000 tonnes of salt ready this year, a record tally - and due to November's extremely mild weather it has remained virtually untouched so far.