Protest record 'Pothole Rock' released to highlight Devon's 3,000 road defects

A new protest record's been released urging Devon County Council to get on with fixing the estimated 3,000 potholes on the roads here.

Part-time musician and district councillor Stuart Hughes is behind the record called 'Pothole Rock', after he was Devon's head of roads until the last election.

Known as 'Huggy' from 'Huggy & the Highway Gang', he said: "With the state of the highways at the present time, right around the country but particularly here in Devon, the roads are really cracking up and so we thought we would write this number called 'Pothole Rock' and turn Britain's bumps into a beat.

The record can be found here

"We're turning our frustration into rock 'n' roll as you start seeing roads falling apart and the council start sending out all of these messages that it's to do with the weather - in the Summer months that's the time when you should be repairing the roads and I've always said it."

In just one day, last month, after repeated storms, Devon County Council received more than 200 calls reporting issues on the roads – and responded by mobilising hundreds of highways engineers across the county.

It has rained every day so far this year in the South West of England according to the Exeter-based Met Office.

At the time a spokesperson said: "Additional resources have been drafted in and there are around 50 teams working to repair potholes and highway damage, which have increased dramatically because of the recent weather. Some of this work will continue over the weekend. There is currently a backlog of nearly 2,900 pothole repairs, all linked to the recent storms, and that number continues to rise."

Speaking about the latest storm clear up, Councillor Dan Thomas the Lib Dem head of roads, following the last county council elections, said: "The worst thing of all and the public will know this only too well is that we can’t afford to fix the roads when the weather is good - and so when the weather is not good that creates even more of an issue."

Huggy & the Highway Gang have previously also released songs calling for things like enhanced cycle path gritting.

In April, Devon's former head of roads has released a song ahead of the arrival of Storm Amy - which he says was to promote road safety and also praise highways crews

A previous pothole protest song can be found here

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