CorpComms Magazine

Motorists fed up with the deteriorating condition of UK highways have taken to Twitter to create 'pothole poems'.

The competition to find the finest byway ballads was launched by website potholes.co.uk, which seeks to alert drivers to the potential pitfalls of the nation's highways and help those whose cars have suffered pothole damage seek compensation.

But it seemed many vehicle owners could see the funny side of this frustrating phenomenon. Poetic entries had to be condensed into no more than 140 characters and three submissions particularly impressed the judges and earned each of their authors an iPod Touch.

Sean Gibson, a London motorist, tweeted: 'It's amazing don't you think, that you don't have to drive or drink, to test your mettle skill and soul, you just need one big round pothole.'

Canterbury car-owner, Stuart Ellison-Smith, wrote: 'When almost dusk & light turns grey, potholes greedily grasp their prey. Axles, tyres, paint are theirs, once you've trespassed in their lairs.'

Whilst recurrent rhymer, Karen Tolhurst, submitted the verse, 'I hit a pothole, car went lame, not to blame, made a claim, nothing came, crying shame I hit a pothole.'

After an unprecedentedly harsh winter, tyre manufacturer Bridgestone has reported a 10-fold rise in the number of tyres damaged by potholes in the UK compared to the same period last year. Over the winter, pothole damage was responsible for one in12 tyre replacements in Bridgestone dealerships.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance estimates that the average pothole costs £70 to repair and road damage is found every 120 yards. By their calculations, it could take take over 15 years and cost local authorities in excess of £10 billion to fix UK highways.

Duncan McClure Fish, managing director of the website, said: 'Our website users are a creative bunch and, although some of the entries used terminology not really suitable for publication on a family website, they certainly gave us a good laugh. It's been a light-hearted exercise, but if it highlights once more the problem the UK has with the state of its roads, and the anguish it genuinely causes drivers, all the better.'

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