A town in Wiltshire is being plagued by a persistent group of potholes, reports the Western Daily Press.
The holes, which appeared after the heavy rain in January, are located in the centre of the town of Malmesbury and have appeared five times in three weeks—despite being repeatedly filled in by road menders.
Residents spoke to the Western Daily Press about the problems caused by the potholes.
‘Once this has filled with water you have no idea how deep it is,’ warned Malmesbury resident, Alicia Cooper. ‘I was forced to drive through it on Saturday, and ended up getting some poor couple walking on the pavement completely soaked.’
One former mayor of Malmesbury, Steve Cox, told the newspaper that council attempts to fix it were ‘futile’.
‘It's an awful pothole, and the debris around it is the result of some futile attempts by Wiltshire Council to repair it,’ he said.
Rather more dramatically, another former mayor, Andrew Woodcock, threatened succession: ‘We would be better off being part of Gloucestershire – dump Wiltshire.’
Potholes can cause a lot of problems. A recent report by the Tax Payers Alliance revealed councils paid out £8m between 2013 and 2015 in compensation claims due to damage caused by potholes.
