POTHOLES, faulty street lights and broken manhole covers can all be reported to Shropshire Council through a new online portal.

The My Shropshire website has recently been launched with some “great success” according to council bosses.

The system will allow residents to use interactive maps to pinpoint locations where work is needed – with council staff keeping those who reported incidents updated.

It comes as the council revealed highway conditions were “severely affected” during the 2017/18 winter period, with £6 million spent during last summer on resurfacing.

Tom Dodds, intelligence and insight manager at Shropshire Council, said in a report to members of the council’s performance management scrutiny committee, that the council had also been given more than £7 million funding.

He said: “Highway conditions were severely affected during the winter period of 2017/18 resulting in a high number of potholes.

“Specialist Roadmaster machines were used to tackle the backlog. Clearance of these repairs coincided with a period of the survey and may have resulted in an understandable decline in satisfaction rates.

“Whilst some £6 million has been spent on the summer 2018 resurfacing programme to help maintain and prevent future defects forming, the budgetary pressures and large rural highway network present ongoing challenges to maintain standards.

“In addition, the council received £7.3 million in additional funding from the Department for Transport in November 2018.”

It is hoped the new online portal will make the process of reporting and repairing potholes a lot easier.

Andrew Boxall, the council’s technology and communications manager, said : “So far it has worked really well and we have had a lot of positive feedback on the new site.

“You can go on and report an awful lot of things such as potholes, street lights, bollards, road markings and spillages.

“If someone has already reported that problem it will flash up and say we are already aware and working on it.”

Councillor Clare Wilde, committee chair, said she had used the portal and had been impressed.

She added: “It is like Google Maps really. You can zoom in and out and pinpoint exactly where the issue is located.”

But Councillor Roger Evans, leader of the Lib Dem group on the council, said he was concerned residents may not be able to find the location in rural areas.

The website can be viewed at: my.shropshire.gov.uk