Councillors Andrew Atkinson and Richard Mayo are on a mission to log all of the potholes and road defects in Ross for inspection by Amey. Having them logged on the system will mean that Amey are aware of them all and the Councillors can keep pushing for results.

Councillor Atkinson said: "We need more investment in our roads, I understand the economic pressures and the effect the freak weather has had this year but I can't help but feel that we were under-invested in the first place."

The duo have been in discussions with Herefordshire Council's Councillor Graham Powell, cabinet member for education and infrastructure, who has responsibility for our roads.

Cllr Powell agreed that the roads have suffered from "many years of under-investment and highlighted the ongoing problems of funding. He said: "The road network maintenance program is not helped by the continual, year on year reduction in funding from central government."

He says this will include a drop of £1.113m between the total funding received in 2010/11 to what the funding will be in 2013/14.

Herefordshire Council are currently receiving 50 road defect reports a day – more than double the rate of January 2012. The prime cause of the current defects is the excess water attributable to the extreme amount of rain in December.

Some of the repairs, which appear to be of a temporary nature are, in part, attributable to The Belwin Scheme. This is where the Council can claim for emergency repair work carried out due to flooding, within 60 days of the flood damage being reported.

However, as some Gazette readers have pointed out, some of the pot holes in Old Gloucester Road, Ross, are not due to flooding and while Amey have been along and filled in some pot holes, there are still many within the vicinity of others that have been repaired, which still sit gaping. Cllr Atkinson has told the Gazette that this is a consequence of the current contract Amey have with Herefordshire Council and upon the renegotiation of that contract, it is hoped a new, better system can be implemented.

For the rest of this story please see this week's Ross Gazette.