LANCASHIRE residents have been asked to use a new digital tool on the county council website to report potholes.

The online system is aimed at helping the authority’s highway engineers tackle the dangerous and annoying road surface defects.

The ‘Report It’ tool aims to minimise delays by asking people to provide accurate information and only alert officials to potholes big enough to need repair.

The county council’s highways teams fixed 40,000 potholes last year with each team able to repair 20 a day,.

Cllr Keith Iddon, the authority’s highways boss, believes they could even better if residents used the Report It tool to provide accurate information when they find a pothole.

He is asking residents to go to the dedicated tool on the website and upload photographs and key information such as the location on an interactive map and the size of the defect.

Potholes on roads need to be 40mm deep before the council will repair them, with potholes on pavements or road crossings only 25mm deep due to the risk of trips.

Cllr Iddon said: “Potholes are caused by cold and wet weather and wear and tear from vehicles, which means we’ll always have to deal with them no matter how much we spend on the roads.

“Our new campaign asks people to help our highways teams by taking the time to provide accurate information when they report potholes, and preferably to use the Report It function on our website.

“The more people can help by using Report It to accurately report potholes the more efficient our highways teams can be in responding and keeping the roads safe and in good repair.”

Ribble Valley Tory MP Nigel Evans said: “This campaign is long overdue. Things are getting better but there are still many placed with dangerous potholes that need repairing.”