FOREST of Dean residents were urged by Gloucestershire County Council to report potholes after winter damage to local roads.

The appeal was made as the county marked National Pothole Day on Thursday, January 15, using the occasion to highlight its online reporting tool, FixMyStreet.

Icy conditions, heavy rain and repeated freezing temperatures had created ideal conditions for potholes to form across the Forest, often appearing with little warning despite regular inspections by highways teams.

County councillors said public reports played a vital role at this time of year, helping inspectors identify new damage as soon as it appeared.

Once a pothole was logged, highways officers assessed the safety risk, with the most serious defects repaired within two hours. Smaller issues were typically dealt with within 28 days.

During the current financial year, more than 51,800 minor road repairs had been carried out across Gloucestershire, most involving potholes, with crews also fixing a further 7,600 nearby defects.

Resurfacing remained a key long-term priority, with more than 200 roads across the county scheduled to be resurfaced through surface dressing and patching schemes.

The council said this included roads in rural areas such as the Forest of Dean, where drainage issues and weather-related damage were an ongoing challenge.

The work was supported by the government’s multi-year highways maintenance funding, alongside an additional £15 million investment by the county council to improve roads and drainage.

Cllr Joe Harris, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “Pothole season is here and the icy winter weather has had a big impact on our roads. We acted quickly to fix the biggest potholes, so I encouraged residents to report any that had sprung up near them using FixMyStreet. Resurfacing is the best long-term solution, and when spring arrives we will ramp up repairs to make them last.”