By Local Democracy Reporter Peter Davison
An army of stewards has been tasked with filling thousands of Wiltshire potholes as persistent rain causes highway havoc.
The 18 parish stewards have been told to drop everything and concentrate on road surfaces, joining Wiltshire Council’s regular highways maintenance crews.
Cllr Martin Smith, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, said, “We have now had persistent and heavy rain on nearly every day so far this year, and it’s taking a toll on our highways network.
“We have seen a rise in potholes on some Wiltshire roads and we’re working hard to address these issues as quickly as we can.
“So far this year we have repaired more than 2,700 potholes, and we are continuing to repair many more each day.
“Our teams are actively responding to residents’ reports, and to boost this effort, we’ve asked our 18 Parish Stewards to focus solely on pothole repairs in their areas over the coming weeks.
“We were making progress on potholes – reports in 2025 fell by 28 per cent compared to 2024 and we were also rated in the top 16 councils by the Department for Transport (DfT) for having good local road conditions.
“The recent adverse weather has obviously highlighted that there is a lot more to do.
“We are ploughing an extra £5 million into preventative road maintenance, for the next three years over and above the grant that the Department for Transport gives us. This is the only way we can make our roads more resilient to the weather.”
Cllr Smith said potholes could be reported via the MyWilts app.
When a pothole is reported to the council it is assessed and then scheduled for repair based on the priorities set out in the council’s highways inspection manual.
The largest potholes are assigned priority 1 and will be fixed within one day. Priority 2 is within two weeks, and priority 3 is 28 days.
The council maintains more than 5,000 miles of road excluding the M4, A303 and A36, which are managed by National Highways.
