A man filled a "dangerous" pothole himself after becoming fed up "waiting for his local council" to do something about it. Paul Jackson bought two bags of concrete to fill in the pothole outside his home last week but was shocked when Devon County Council (DCC) showed up an hour later and began digging it up.
He said the hole on Whipton Village Road, Exeter, was around 15 to 20cm deep and had been there for "several weeks". Paul claimed he had reported the issue to the council but they hadn't been around to repair it.
Speaking to Devon Live, Paul said: "It shouldn’t be down to us to fill in our own potholes. At what point does it become a safety concern for cyclists, motorbikes and damage to vehicles? The council/ highways are a joke."
However, just an hour after filling in the pothole, Paul says he was shocked to see a team from the council digging out the concrete he had laid and repairing the hole themselves. He also said some other potholes in the local area have since been repaired.
He added: "I’d had enough of driving into it and I’d read people claiming on damages to their cars on the Whipton Community Group Facebook page so thought I’d sort it out before a cyclist or motorbike went through it. I used a couple of bags of cement to fill it over. Lots of people passing were making positive comments but also mentioning the state of their road and potholes yet to be fixed.
"I believe someone may have contacted highways to report someone filling it in as they came about an hour after to fill the hole. Two trucks and about half a dozen workers came to cut it out and fill it back in. Was it a strange coincidence? They filled the other holes in the same area on different days bizarrely."
A Devon County Council spokesperson said: "We cannot condone work being carried out on public roads without consent and anyone doing so is putting themselves and other road users at risk. This pothole was reported to our highways teams on Tuesday, May 2, and they repaired it on Wednesday, May 17, digging out the concrete before carrying out the repair.
"We have additional crews carrying out pothole repairs across the county and they have filled more than 23,000 safety defects so far this year."
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