Highways chiefs have doubled the number of teams responding to call-outs to potholes after an increase in damage to roads in east Shropshire over the “hard” winter.

Telford & Wrekin Council will keep the extra teams on the ground over the next month to deal with a backlog in repairs. Councillor Miles Hosken said an additional £2.2m in highways maintenance had been committed for the next two years.

And he revealed the council had already nearly doubled the amount of times gritters had been sent out over the winter period.

Councillor Hosken made his written comments in response to a question asked by Councillor Helen Williams.

She asked: “Following the recent spate of bad weather, which took the whole country by surprise in its ferocity, what lessons have been learnt by the council’s highways department regarding gritting and the subsequent damage to the roads.

“And what contingency plans are in place should this happen again?”

Councillor Hosken, cabinet member for the environment, said this year they had seen 70 “red” forecasts meaning sub zero temperatures, compared with 20 for the whole of last year.

“We have already made 110 salting turnouts this year compared with the average of 70 for the last five years and used over 5,300 tonnes of salt compared with an average of 2,860 tonnes over the past four years.”

He said a decision to limit the amount of gritting to cover A and B roads had been taken after “extensive consultation” with the emergency services.

“Statistics provided by the services following the event have indicated that there had been no increase in reported traffic accidents or admissions to hospital resulting from weather-related incidents.”

He said a review would be carried out before next winter.

Of the potholes issue Councillor Hosken said: “In Telford & Wrekin we have doubled the number of our response maintenance teams to four, which includes the pothole buster machine in order to help address the problem.

“It is envisaged these will continue to operate for the next four weeks in order to overcome the increase in numbers and backlog.”

By Lisa Rowley