Call to use pothole patching machine

Alexander Thomson made the call at the local council federation meeting for the council to use the jet patcher employed on the Old Graitney Road regionwide, believing it could save them a ‘fortune’.
Mr Thomson said: “The machine takes about two men to operate, and I reckon they could easily fill in 18 potholes in an hour.
“All they do is lay the tar, stones, tar and so on and blast it every now and again and then the hole is filled.
“You could not take that out with an axe pick; it is solid.”
However, Mr Thompson’s call has been met with some mixed reactions.
Councillor Ian Carruthers said: “The jet patcher is something that is a great, quick, temporary fix so long as it is done under the right environment — it is dry and that sort of thing.
“However, it can leave the filled hole bumpy and rough, but that all depends on the environment and the operator, but generally it is very difficult to get flat.
“It is not as good as a standard reinstatement that uses all the tar layers and gets flattened, but for a quick fix it is spot on.
“I have seen potholes being filled with the jet patcher that have gone on to last 12 years.
“A lot of them can be filled in a short space of time, and I do not know why it is not used more often.”
Councillor Carruthers said that even if the machine was used to patch holes, and for them to be better filled in at a later, more convenient, date, then that would also be an ideal situation.