HIGHWAYS bosses are warning residents not to take matters into their own hands to instigate road repairs after a mystery person took on the job of marking out potholes on a Forest road.

District Councillor for Bream Richard Leppington recently contacted Gloucestershire County Council’s Highways team to come out and assess the poor condition of a stretch of Bream Avenue (B4231), just after the village heading towards Coleford.

A number of potholes have opened up on the road in recent times, just after the bend at the start of the straight before the junction with the B4228 at Trow Green.

But when the Highways team arrived there to mark out the potholes for repair, they found that they had already been marked.

The responsible authority told Cllr Leppington it was nothing to do with them and were mystified as to who had carried out the work.

Both parties then guessed it had been done by a local resident.

Cllr Leppington said: “They’ve done a great job of it whoever has done it, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

Richard says he is in a constant dialogue with Highways about the state of Bream Avenue, which has been in poor condition for some time.

And since his most recent contact with the authority, he has been informed that they now plan to resurface the entire road in June.

“I can understand people’s frustration with the state of the road and I’m really pleased that Highways are now going to do something about it”, he continued.

“What we don’t want is a situation where people are heading out onto the roads with paint brushes - it really should go through the proper channels.”

Brian Watkins, who is the Area Highways Manager for Gloucestershire County Council, said: “We request members of the public do not place any marks on the carriageway as it is misleading and could cause a safety issue.

“Defects that meet our criteria are identified and marked by qualified safety inspectors ready for crews to carry out repairs when they attend the site. They include grid references and photographs, so any markings by the public will not be included.”

The council also confirmed that resurfacing works on the road are set to be carried out in the week commencing June 7.