Hampshire County Council (HCC) has trialled a “revolutionary” new pothole fixing machine which is claimed to cut the costs of repair by half.

Hampshire Highways tested the JCB PotholePro this week, a machine which is capable of repairing a pothole in less than eight minutes, which JCB says is four times quicker than a standard repair.

Hampshire County Council’s executive member for highways operations, Councillor Russell Oppenheimer, said: “From the demonstration seen, it is clear that this machinery is effective in making a quick, clean and efficient repair. It will be interesting to understand more about its cost effectiveness over time but the potential for increasing the speed of repair is appealing.”

The machine was trialled by HCC’s highways department this week, where it was sent to repair more than 250 square metre patches across the county. The manufacturers claim this would allow it to repair around 700 potholes a month, while the machine is able to travel within and between sites rapidly.

Paul Swallow, JCB PotholePro General Manager, said: “It’s been a hugely successful trial in Hampshire this week and I’m confident that everyone involved got to see just how effective the JCB PotholePro is at fixing potholes and patches permanently and at half the cost of current solutions.

“Potholes are a huge concern for councils all over the country and one of the issues with repairs at the moment is that in most cases they are only short- term fixes – and that’s where the JCB PotholePro differs.

“Just like when you have a filling, the dentist has to carefully remove all the decay so your tooth can be filled properly without recurrence of pain. It’s just the same with a pothole: it needs to be prepared properly before it is filled so the pothole doesn’t open up again within weeks. That’s exactly what the JCB PotholePro does; it cuts, crops and cleans the hole so a permanent repair can be carried out.”

According to freedom of information data gathered by the Federation of Small Businesses, local authorities like HCC are asked to repair a pothole on average every 46 seconds, with almost £1 billion spent on fixing roads in 2018/19.

The news comes as HCC opened its new road materials recycling facility in Micheldever on June 3, where road building materials can be reprocessed for use in pothole fixes.