I AM no expert concerning highway maintenance in general or pothole repair in particular. In fact I freely admit to total ignorance in these areas but I have some theories.

The overall strategy regarding the ubiquitous pothole appears to be one of visibility enhancement rather than actual repair.

This involves the regular application of white spray paint around the periphery, and in some cases the interior, of the pothole.

As an aside, the yardstick used to determine whether or not the interior is sprayed seems to be one of surface area – my personal theory on this phenomenon is, that given a large enough canvas, spray can operatives will often exercise their inner artistic abilities. But I digress.

To my mind there are three possible reasons for this pothole spraying, and I list them in ascending order of probability.

Firstly: that it is to assist highway repair operatives by highlighting defective areas. When drawing up this list I debated for a long time the wisdom of including this possibility.

All it takes for a highway repair operative to decide whether or not an area of road is in need of repair, irrespective of the presence or absence of white paint, is to ask him/herself: "Would I be happy driving over that?"

It is for that reason alone that I feel this entry can be discounted.

Secondly that it is to assist the public by highlighting defective areas. In my opinion this is much more likely.

However, laudable though this possibility is, it is lacking in a few important areas.

The paint is not very durable and tends to fade over a period of weeks, and depending on road usage and weather conditions, mere days.

The addition of a reflective component to the paint would assist night-time driving, however this would not overcome lack of visibility on a snow-covered road.

It is difficult to ignore the danger of potholes to the visually handicapped pedestrian.

So to sum up: what is required is a long-lasting paint that is reflective and changes colour depending on weather conditions and gives off an audible warning to approaching pedestrians. Once the boffins find solutions to these minor technicalities then I think we may have a winner.

Lastly, and the most likely, is that spray painting has nothing to do with highlighting whatsoever, but is in fact the actual repair.

Admittedly it might take many years and several thousand applications of paint to repair a single pothole, but there are some things that are better not rushed.

– Adrian Marshall, Coleford.