A PETITION has been launched in a bid to rid Swindon of potholes.

Councillors for the Parks area say the town is becoming known as ‘pothole city’.

They have started a survey to find the worst-affected roads.

Coun Mark Dempsey said: “The acute winter weather has severely damaged Swindon’s roads so much so that it is becoming known as ‘pothole city’.

“Roads in Parks have been particularly affected, including Kingswood Avenue, Whitbourne Avenue and Cranmore Avenue.

“On Kingswood Avenue, there are 20 pot holes in 20m of road.

“Unfortunately, the council has slashed the money on road repairs by £500,000 over the past five years.

“Our residents are suffering with untold damage to people’s vehicles.

“Many of the roads in Parks are so bad that they really need to be completely resurfaced.”

Earlier this year Swindon Council said it had received more claims than usual for pothole damage to people’s vehicles and said the harsh winter was to blame.

But a spokesman said the percentage of payouts was the same as usual. The total cost of payouts in 2009/10 was £1,084.54.

Coun Dempsey urged people to sign the petition online at www.PetitionOnline.com/ParksPH/petition.

He added: “We will be taking the petition out across Parks and we’re also asking residents to complete a survey so that we can tell Swindon Council which roads need to be repaired.

“We would also like residents to send us their photos of the worst potholes in Parks so that we can send Swindon Borough Council a dossier of the Parks potholes.”

Send pictures to mark@ markdempsey.org.uk.

A spokesman for Swindon Council said: “We did some major patching work in Parks back in May, so this might be damage which has got worse since then.

“We will send out a highways inspector to examine it to see what needs to be done.”