THE county council will be bidding to get a slice of a £100 million pot of government cash to help patch up Worcestershire’s roads.

Nearly 7,000 potholes have been repaired since temperatues started to drop in late November.

About 800 are being repaired every week and residents are being encouraged to report any potholes they see – the council has had about 2,600 reports so far.

While officials at County Hall say they still do not know exactly how much damage was caused by the severe winter weather – temperatures in some parts of the county reached as low as -19C in December – they have welcomed yesterday’s announcement by the Government that more funds will be available.

Councillor Derek Prodger, cabinet member for transport and safe environment, said: “Whilst we do not yet know the level of funding we will receive from the Government this additional funding will, of course, be a welcome boost to our highways effort.

“Potholes are an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of the cold weather we have experienced this winter.

“We are hopeful the major resurfacing schemes we are undertaking will go some way to mitigating their occurrence.”

The county council has recently completed a £15 million urban road resurfacing programme and work has recently begun on a similar £15 million scheme for rural roads which will provide a new, permanent surface to those county highways worst affected by the winter weather.

Once a pothole has been reported a motorcycle-based rapid response officer is despatched to the scene to assess the hole as to the urgency with which it needs to be repaired.

This is dependent on various factors including its size, where it is on the carriageway and the amount of traffic that the section of road experiences.

The hole is then marked by the officer and a team is sent out to repair it.

The most severe holes will be filled within the hour while less safety critical defects are filled within a maximum of 28 days.

Some potholes will have permanent repairs applied to them in the first instance while other more severe potholes are temporarily patched up to make them safe.

Permanent resurfacing is then carried out at a later date.

Anyone who sees a pothole can report it either online at worcestershire.gov.uk/reportapothole or by calling the Worcestershire Hub on 0845 6072005.