A FORMER Wellington Mayor has suggested that a birthday cake is made for every pothole in the town that has failed to have been filled-in within a year of being reported.

Councillors have suggested that people report pothole problems to Wellington Town Council which can then be sent on to Somerset Council’s highways department which is responsible for them.

Members of the town council’s policy and finance committee said at their meeting on September 9 that if people initially reported to them the problems – they could then keep tabs on whether the county authority actually dealt with those requests.

People can presently report pothole issues to Somerset Council online at www.somerset.gov.uk and wait for highways workers to come and fill them in.

But some town councillors are sceptical about how effective the reporting to Somerset Council about potholes has been. 

Cllr Sean Pringle-Kosikowsky said: “Wellington has a massive pothole problem and it’s getting worse.”

And Cllr Mark Lithgow, a former Mayor, said he had seen in the national press where a community had made a birthday cake for a pothole which had remained untreated for 12 months.

“Perhaps we should do the same here in Wellington just to publicise the problems,” he suggested to councillors.

And the current Wellington Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said: “Everyone is complaining about potholes, but if they aren’t reported they won’t be looked at.

“If a pothole is deemed dangerous it should be fixed straight away, while any pothole which isn’t said to be dangerous, it could take up to 30 days to be repaired.”

Cllr Pringle-Kosikowsky said: “We could promote ourselves locally as a town council that can report things to Somerset Council and keep a proper log of everything. We need to be pro-active and tell people to come to us to report things.”

The Somerset Council report said: “We have a robust system of highway inspections to demonstrate that we take all reasonable steps to make sure roads are safe.

“The highway safety inspection manual at www.somerset.gov.uk describes how we comply with the national standards for road inspections and maintenance including potholes.”