ANGRY residents who say "enough is enough" with the state of their roads have carried out their own survey of potholes.

Brett and Aaron Hammond walked along Main Road to the high street and from Birch Avenue to Victoria Street in Dovercourt with Harwich mayor John Brown.

The trio said they found the half mile route littered with trip hazards and deep potholes, but none of them were marked for repair by Essex County Council.

Brett, of Church Street, also said they witnessed a highways van driving straight over one of the worst potholes they found in the middle of the Kingsway junction.

He said: "We found that much of the road was in a dire state of repair, much of it having been neglected over an extended period.

"The cause of the problem is not just neglect; it is the quality of repairs being carried out.

"The lack of proper repair of potholes is easy to see throughout the town.

"In many places deterioration of repairs is due to the poor quality of cheap and cheerful ‘quick fix’ approach being used.

"This is a false economy and a waste of ratepayer’s money.

"The cutting out of minimal areas of damage, not cleaning out the dust, dirt and rubbish before repairing, non-use of liquid bonding tar and use of cold tarmac, are just a few causes of continued deterioration that have been identified.

"We believe that this corner cutting is not only a false economy but is endangering people and vehicle safety."

The trio are urging residents to complain about the state of the roads and potholes to Essex County Council Highways.

Brett added: "We have been brought to action as simply enough is enough."

Councillor Ian Grundy, Essex County Council's cabinet member for highways, said: “Our crews were out repairing potholes on Main Road on January 5 and 16, February 19 and April 3.

"There are some potholes awaiting repair, but these were assessed as relatively low risk at the last regular inspection on March 8.

“If concerned local residents report what they’ve seen on the Essex Highways website, we can assess the problems more quickly. It is a much more effective and useful means of reporting issues.

“We currently have 30 crews out across the network dealing with the havoc caused by the winter weather.

"Obviously we prioritise the most serious and potentially dangerous potholes and defects.

"If anyone spots a van out on the network, it will be a crew on its way to a planned repair job - it will take time to catch up with the damage done by the ‘Beast from the East’, but we are getting there and our crews are doing a good job and making good progress.”