Thousands of square metres of pothole repairs and patching have been completed across Dudley over the past few weeks as highways bosses vowed to “get tough” on road defects.

The snow and ice earlier in the year caused serious damage to the borough’s highways. A total 324 pothole reports have been made to the council so far in May Around 700 square metres of highways defects were repaired in April, with hundreds more planned.

But highways bosses have ordered more “robust” repairs and resurfacing to extend the life of the road surface by as much as 10 years.

Since the start of April Crews have targeted key areas consisting of 2,900 square metres of ‘structural patching’ at Northway, Swan Lane, Braemar Close, Buckingham Grove, Old Park Road, which includes replacing a section of highway instead of filling in the pothole.

There has also been major resurfacing work at Delph Road in Brierley Hill and Cinder Bank in Dudley. Councillor Damian Corfield, cabinet member for highways and environmental services, said:

"We’re still feeling the effects of the snow and ice on the condition of our roads but we simply have to get tough with the potholes.

"We have regular inspections and repairs to the highways which are patched rather than filling in the potholes. They last a lot longer that way – up to a decade longer.

"That’s a smarter way of working and means people will have good roads to travel on. We are making great strides by working in this way but I would ask people to bear with us and continue reporting these issues to us."

In February the service received 195 reports of potholes. That figure rocketed to 365 following the snow and ice in March. But there were more than 648 reports made in April.

People can report potholes to the council online and searching ‘potholes’.