Photo of pothole partially filled with water

Potholes, blocked drains and other road problems — how to report them

Potholes, blocked gullies, broken street lights, overgrown verges, fallen branches, damaged road signs — if you spot a problem on a road or pavement anywhere in the parish, the quickest and most effective thing you can do is report it directly to Herefordshire Council. They are the highway authority, and they are the only body that can send someone out to inspect and carry out a repair.

Report a problem

Important to understand

Roads, pavements and highway drains are the responsibility of Herefordshire Council, not the Parish Council. When you report a problem to Herefordshire Council yourself, it goes straight to the people who can act on it.

It’s worth being plain about something that’s often misunderstood. When the Parish Council reports a pothole, our report counts for exactly the same as one from any resident — no more, no less. We have no special hotline, no priority status, and no power to order a repair or speed one up. So passing a problem to the Parish Council first doesn’t help; it only adds a delay while we report the very same thing you could report in two minutes yourself.

In short: you reporting it directly is the fastest route, and it carries just as much weight as anything we could do. We’d much rather you knew that than sat waiting for us, or anyone else, to act on your behalf.

What happens to your report

Herefordshire Council inspects reported faults and prioritises them by risk — taking into account things like the location, how busy the road is, and how dangerous the defect is. The more reports a problem gets, and the better the detail (a clear location and a photo really help), the easier it is for them to find and assess it. So please don’t assume “someone else will have reported it” — an extra report does no harm and often helps.

How to report a problem online

Go to: www.herefordshire.gov.uk/travel-and-transport/roads/report-a-road-problem

You can report things including:

  • Potholes
  • Highway drainage issues (blocked drains and gullies) and land drainage issues
  • Pavements needing repair
  • Roads needing resurfacing
  • Faulty street lights
  • Overgrown verges and overhanging trees
  • Damaged road signs, worn road markings or missing cat’s eyes
  • Public rights of way problems
  • Fly-tipping
Report a problem

Urgent or dangerous problems — phone instead

For anything urgent or potentially dangerous — such as a fallen tree or another obstruction blocking the road or pavement, or a fault on a permanent set of traffic lights — call:

01432 261800 — answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

View existing reports & track progress

The Council has a Pothole and road defect progress map, which shows faults that are already being dealt with or have been fixed in the last three months. You can use it to check whether something has already been reported, or to follow the progress of an issue you’ve reported. You’ll find it linked from the “report a road problem” page above.

Check the progress map

There’s also an app for your phone

The Council has a free reporting app that lets you pin the exact spot on a map and attach a photo — which makes for a much clearer, faster report. As well as potholes, you can use it to report public rights of way problems, fly-tipping and dog fouling.

A quick word on what kind of app it is, because it’s slightly unusual: it is not downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Instead it’s a website that behaves like an app. You visit it once, “add it to your home screen”, and from then on it sits there with its own icon and opens just like any other app. (The technical name is a “progressive web app”.)

Here’s how to set it up — it takes less than a minute:

On an iPhone or iPad (using Safari):

  1. Open www.herefordshire.gov.uk/reportingapp in Safari.
  2. Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing up — usually at the bottom of the screen).
  3. Tap Add to Home Screen.
  4. Tap Add in the top corner.

On an Android phone (using Chrome):

  1. Open www.herefordshire.gov.uk/reportingapp in Chrome.
  2. You’ll usually see a prompt to Add Report app to Home screen — tap it, then tap Add.
  3. If no prompt appears, tap the three-dot menu in the top corner and choose Add to Home screen.

In a nutshell

If lots of us report problems as we come across them, the whole parish benefits. Thank you for doing your bit.

Fownhope Parish Council