Coventry City Council has come under scrutiny after a local campaigner revealed the authority holds little measurable data on the performance of the JCB PotholePro it bought four years ago — even as the cost of filling potholes in the city remains reported as nine times the average.
Purchase promised rapid savings and faster repairs
The council purchased the PotholePro in 2022 for £165,000, at a time when demonstrations suggested the machine could mend a pothole in under eight minutes and resurface an entire stretch of road in a fraction of the usual time. In January 2023 the authority reported the vehicle had repaired 562 miles of road and filled around five times as many potholes in a 12-month period than had been recorded the previous year.
Campaigner says monitoring is lacking
Four years on, however, Alex Clinton-Carter, who lives in the Tile Hill and Canley ward and campaigns on local issues, says the council cannot produce up-to-date performance indicators to show the scheme's effectiveness.
“I remember the machine being purchased and how it was going to be the answer to our pothole problems, so I wanted to see how that had actually been measured a few years on.”
Mr Clinton-Carter submitted freedom of information requests seeking the programme's KPIs, repair times, repeat repair rates and any before-and-after assessments. He says the council has told him it does not hold KPIs or targets for the PotholePro programme, does not record individual repair completion times, and does not record repeat repairs with sufficient precision to report on them.
Council schedules further roadworks amid concerns
The council has responded by saying a six-week period of pothole repairs is due to begin this month. Officials assert that continued maintenance and targeted work will address local road conditions, but critics argue that without robust performance data it is difficult to know whether the machine provides value for money.
- Machine purchased: 2022
- Purchase price: £165,000
- Mileage reported repaired (Jan 2023): 562 miles
- Reported comparative increase in potholes filled (2022 vs previous year): five times
- Planned concentrated repair period: six weeks
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Purchase year | 2022 |
| Cost | £165,000 |
| Reported miles repaired (Jan 2023) | 562 miles |
| Reported increase in potholes filled | Five times more than previous year |
Local residents and road users welcome additional repairs but say they need transparent metrics to judge whether the council's investment has delivered the promised efficiencies. Without clear targets and precise recording of repair outcomes and repeat jobs, determining the long-term effectiveness of the PotholePro remains difficult.
The issue raises wider questions for councillors and officers responsible for highways maintenance: how to show value for public spending, how to measure quality over time and how to allocate scarce resources across the city's network of roads. The council's forthcoming six-week programme will be watched closely by campaigners and residents seeking assurance that the machine is achieving its objectives.
