Pothole-busters have filled in more than 10,000 craters in Telford’s weather-beaten roads – in just eight weeks.

And about £250,000 has been ploughed into tackling the fall-out from the worst winter to hit Britain for 30 years, it was revealed today. Telford & Wrekin Council launched the “Pothole-Busters” campaign asking residents to report holes in the road to the council’s highway maintenance team at the end of January.

In the first two weeks calls to the council soared by 300 per cent and in total officers received nearly 1,500 reports.

Additional teams were introduced and Councillor Adrian Lawrence, cabinet member for the environment, today described their efforts as “phenomenal”.

He said: “The overwhelming success of this campaign has been largely thanks to residents, parish councils and council staff who have been so pro-active in reporting potholes to us. I know that contractors have worked really hard to tackle the issue and the amount of potholes which have been filled is phenomenal.

“I recognise the problem of potholes has not been completely solved, but thanks to the hard work and determination of this council and its residents, it has been greatly improved.”

Councillor Lawrence said the surge in the number of potholes was caused by the harsh winter and the freeze-thaw weather cycle which caused road surfaces to break up.

Inspectors investigate all reports and all potholes which are classed as urgent are fixed by the end of the next working day.

On Saturday it was revealed that the county’s roads are in such a poor state that it could take in the region of nine years to fix them. The Government has dished out £278,400 to the council in emergency aid.

Meanwhile the arrival of British Summer Time has brought wet and windy weather – with snow already falling in some parts of the Scotland. Forecasters warned Shropshire would not escape the wintry blast with the cold snap returning to the county tomorrow and Wednesday.

By Wayne Beese