Gedling councillors are appealing for urgent road repairs after a busy main Nottingham road was left littered with ‘crater’ potholes.
The dire condition of the A612 Colwick Loop Road has been showcased in a video made and shared by Conservative Nottinghamshire County and Gedling Borough Councillor Mike Adams.
The junction next to the Marks and Spencer at Victoria Retail Park in Netherfield has been in a deteriorated, crumbling state for around eight weeks, according to Cllr Adams.
In January 2025, the section had temporary repairs where potholes were filled in, but speaking on these quick fixes, Cllr Adams said, “you might as well pour Weetabix in it”.
He said: “It’s just deteriorated massively in eight weeks; you can’t drive over it at more than five miles per hour.
“It’s in a braking zone, making it potentially dangerous because your vehicle’s out of control.”
The councillor says he has contacted highway officials at the County Council in recent days highlighting the issues and is ‘awaiting updates’.
Councillor Sam Smith (Con), who also sits on the County Council and represents the Trent Valley ward on the Borough Council alongside Cllr Adams, described the potholes as ‘craters’.
He said: “I drive that road every single day, twice a day, to and from County Hall – I feel like I’ve fallen through the road to Australia and back. It’s atrocious.
“People drive into different lanes to avoid them. They’re definitely category one defects where the County Council has a responsibility to fill them in within 24 hours – that’s not been adhered to.
“It’s causing damage to cars, it’s frustrating to drivers and it’s dangerous. It’s both sides – you get rattled about on the way into Nottingham and rattled about on the way out.”
Cllr Smith said policy under the previous Conservative administration at the County Council was to temporarily repair roads within 24 hours, but then to return within 90 days to complete a resurfacing section.
A woman who works at Noble Electrical Contractors in Great Northern Way said she purposely avoids the potholes in her car.
She said: “I’m going into the right lane, which you shouldn’t do. It’s that bad I’d rather go round. If you have to go through it, you have to go through at your slowest – even then you can hear it.
“Every time I come to this road I think, ‘they’ve definitely got to have fixed it by now’… I don’t understand how this one is not [fixed].
“The weather’s not getting better any time soon; the cold makes it worse and they’re not keeping on top of it. How bad does it need to get?”
Gedling Borough Councillor Darren Maltby (Con), who represents Bestwood St Albans, says he has invited all Nottinghamshire MPs and council leaders to help set up a working group to look at tackling the county’s road and pothole issues.
He said: “There are two things: we’ve got the issue of potholes, but it’s the depth of them as well – when it rains you can’t judge how deep they are.
“It’s a case now where I literally avoid going on [the loop road]. If I need to go to the retail park, I’ll go through Netherfield to cut straight over because it’s just too horrendous to go over.
“I want a cross-party working group that’s non-political so we can just address all the issues to get this resolved.”
Nottinghamshire County Council’s highways team has been contacted for comment but did not respond at the time of publication.
