A DRIVER know as Tavistock’s Mr Pothole is renewing his pressure to have the town’s tarmac traps filled.

David Newcombe, of Tavistock, is a thorn in the side of Devon County Council (DCC) highways, monitoring progress filling potholes in West Devon’s roads.

He said too many potholes are left unfilled for weeks after being reported to DCC or do not qualify for being fixed under emergency pothole repair funding.

Highways ask people to report potholes on its website under criteria such as vertical edges and being at least 4cm deep.

David has seen little improvement over the past two years: “The county council does have a team which has been busy filling in what I assume are the officially designated potholes and I did spend an afternoon following them to see where they went and what they did.

Also, although there are criteria potholes must meet before they’re repaired, it seems arbitrary.

“Potholes are not just a nuisance, they can cause accidents if people swerve to avoid them, they damage cars and cost the council compensation to drivers.”

David even has a homemade device to measure pothole depths. He has collected an extensive rogues gallery of the car-damaging holes on roads throughout the town and in 2023/24 fed his information to Tavistock MP Sir Geoffrey Cox in a petition to the House of Commons.

He started a Facebook page called Tavistock Pothole Club which has gathered pace with legions of unhappy motorists as followers.

A DCC spokesperson said: "The council has a legal duty to keep the highway network safe and all pothole reports we receive are assessed by our highway safety inspectors.

“Those considered safety defects will be risk-assessed by the inspector to determine a timescale for repair. No action is taken where potholes do not meet the criteria. Repairs can be made to potholes not classed as safety defects when resources allow.”