Mr Pothole marks four years of tarmac action

A dedicated drivers’ champion who has spent four years campaigning for potholes to be repaired promptly has been looking back on some success.

Dave Newcombe has earned the title Tavistock’s Mr Pothole for his tireless war against ‘shoddy’ repairs and ‘neglected’ roads.

He started the Tavistock Pothole Club Facebook page in frustration at the plague of potholes spreading across the roads of the town with little being done to tackle them.

Dave’s online page is his way of personally documenting the tarmac terrors visually and recording any progress on mending them.

Many drivers, angry at the damage caused to their cars tyres and suspension, have grown used to posting their own photographs on his page. The page has many hundreds of regular views and followers and he credits the progress he has made on the issue to the photographs.

The most dramatic image reflects Dave’s frustration, that of him lying on his back in a long, wide pothole on Plymouth Road. The photo had the desired impact with the media noticing and radio and TV interviews with Dave and councillors following. The result was (coincidentally or not) that the hole was soon repaired by Devon County Council highways.

Dave‘s fame has spread as winter weather scours out more road pockmarks and he has turned down London TV studio interviews on the subject because he does not fancy the travelling, even though his costs would be met. He partnered with MP Sir Geoffrey Cox (Torridge and Tavistock) to support a Westminster petition, securing a Commons debate on road repair funding.

Dave said: “The Facebook page has been amazingly successful in bringing public attention to pothole repairs. The more I told the story of my battle to get repairs, the more people added their examples.

“Instead of people fighting with the county council for something to be done individually and no one knowing about it, I was able to show it was a big problem which needed to be taken seriously.

“I have councillors paying attention to what really annoys people and that’s the length of time it takes for repairs, why potholes next to each other are not mended at the same time and the quality of repairs.”

Another annoyance which compounds the anger of drivers are the strict criteria on the county council website for reported potholes to be defined as ‘real’ potholes and earn a place on the repair list.

Dave is proficient in measuring the depths and widths and working out the inside shape of a pothole, as defined by highways, with his homemade tools in order to report them for mending – risking his life by kneeling in busy roads.

But it has been worth it: “I like to think I’ve been successful to some extent. Things have improved. Potholes were big news on the doorstep when councillors were canvassing for local elections and then the general election. The county council got more repair funding. But there are still areas which are black-spots and I have to keep up the pressure. I suppose success would mean the issue dying down in elections.”