Southwark Council have announced with a self satisfied smile that they’ve repaired 11,598 potholes in the last year between APril’11 and end of March’12 ie. 10 months.

Potholes are defined as any hole in the highway 40mm or great deep by 300mm across. That’s a lot of big holes 11,598.

Potholes are formed when roads are not properly maintained. Well maintained roads don’t have potholes.

On a business trip to Shetland Islands last Spring I asked a local government official where all the potholes were – I didn’t see any during a 100miles of driving. He said “we don’t allow them”.

So come on Southwark Council stop bragging about failure and pretending it’s a success.

NB. I met officers and raised this number with them. They didn’t recognise it. It appears the Southwark Press Release converted every activity undertaken – and all reported potholes are inspected – into a grand total of 11,598 potholes.