Midlothian Council has unveiled its "new and not so secret" weapon in the 'fight' against potholes – the JCB Pothole Pro.

The Pothole Pro is a giant 13 tonne digger and a 3 in 1 solution specifically designed to take on any pothole repair, large or small.

It cuts away damaged road surface, crops the edges of the cavity and cleans it out within eight minutes.

A four person crew then prepares, fills, and rollers the repair sealing it, all within half an hour.

Midlothian Council's Cabinet Member with responsibility for roads, Councillor Dianne Alexander said: "This is a magnificent beast of a machine that the roads team tell me can do a repair in 30 minutes that could otherwise take half a day using conventional methods.

"These repairs are not temporary fixes that will last only a week or two, these are permanent solutions that will last the lifetime of the road. 


"With the professionalism and hard work of our roads teams, this is an efficient system, eight times faster than previous methods, which will allow the roads team to catch up on repairs, delivering better roads for our communities."  

The JCB was bought as part of a £780,000 capital investment to replace outdated roads machinery.

As part of the roads resurfacing program a new road planer has been bought to remove the worn surface of roads while new specialist rollers will level newly laid tarmac.

Cllr Alexander said: "Pothole repairs are among the most requested services local authorities are asked to carry out, so the investment in new and up to date equipment will be a huge asset to us to improve roads and pavements."

A £5 million, two-year programme to resurface residential streets will finish in the summer of 2023.

The council has approved an additional capital budget of £12.5m to be spent over the next five years to continue to upgrade the residential road network.

Cllr Alexander said the new investment and equipment will go a long way towards solving our pothole problems.

She said: "Like all local authorities across Scotland, we face huge challenges in maintaining our roads, and we are taking all the steps we can to deliver as much as we can.'

"That's why we have a robust system in place to inspect, prioritise and repair potholes with emergency pothole repairs carried out within 24 hrs."