A crew including a truck is moving through town blowing out loose material and filling the hole with different substances, depending on where the pothole is – if it’s in Grey Street near shops, cold asphalt is used because the alternative, bitumen, tends to get stuck on shoes and then carried into premises.

There has been a special rate rise for extra spending on roads. The council’s Director of Infrastructure, Keith Appleby, said:  “The reason Glen Innes roads are in the state they are in is primarily because there hasn't been enough money to fund them over the last 20 plus years.

“It took some courage from the last Council to make the hard and unpopular decision to apply for a special rates variation, which gives us another $600,000 each year to spend on roads.” 

There’s a trade-off between cost and quality, with longer-lasting remedies costing more.  

Mr Appleby said:  “The underlying issue is the condition of the road network overall. Potholes do not occur when a road is in good condition, and when the foundation of a road has failed, potholes will keep recurring until the road is fully rebuilt with a base of sufficient strength to support the traffic load.”

The council is in a bind because critics of potholes are vocal on Facebook but, on the other hand, nobody likes paying more rates.