A FAMILY has taken it upon itself to help repair the county's damaged roads by getting to the heart of the matter.

Michael Gardiner, his partner Jackie Gwilliam and their children Max and Charlotte, have got the shovels out to dig out ditches and clean blocked drains near their Abbey Dore home.

This, he says, will prevent potholes from appearing in the first place.

“Our highways and byways have been badly maintained for decades now,” said Michael,

"It breaks my heart to see the council spend thousands of pounds of tax payers money filling potholes which just return because the road drainage is not seen to first.

"My idea is to get the old drainage systems working properly again by digging out the ditches and cleaning the blocked drains.

"The water can then be channelled away from the road preventing the pot holes from occurring in the first place."

Michael is asking for other volunteers to get on board his "adopt a culvert" initiative.

For more information, email adoptaculvert@gmail.com