Potholes, overgrown verges and dirty signposts might be repaired more quickly in Teignmouth after the Town Council agreed to sign up to a scheme that will enable volunteers to fix or maintain some areas around the town’s roads.

The Devon County Council Road Warden Scheme trains volunteers so they can carry out minor works in or around the public highway. These include: repairing potholes that aren’t big enough to meet Devon County Council’s ‘intervention criteria’, clearing weeds, cleaning signs, clearing drains and gully gratings, cutting grass, managing verges for wildlife, and repairing finger posts.

Devon County Council provides participants in the scheme with limited funding for materials and tools as well as third party insurance. It says that while Devon has a responsibility to keep the highway safe for the user, the work carried out under the Road Warden Scheme is ‘outside its policies’.

Councillor Dan Comer will lead a team of volunteers to carry out the work, while administrative staff at Teignmouth Town Council will co-ordinate with Devon County Council and deal with the paperwork associated with the scheme.

‘If we fill potholes and stop one person’s car going to the garage it will be worthwhile,’ Councillor Dan Comer commented at the Teignmouth Town Council meeting on Tuesday (October 15) where councillors agreed to sign up to the scheme.

Devon County Council will continue to carry out safety defect repairs and work on filling larger potholes. Between April and September, Devon County Council patched more than 18,000 square metres of road across 350 locations in the county.