A driving instructor specialising in potholes says there is one thing drivers can do to avoid paying out thousands of pounds on car repairs.

Paul Whitburn, 58, runs "pothole avoidance lessons" for his students after becoming alarmed at the state of the roads around his driving school near Nottingham. "

He has splashed out £1,000 on repairs to his car caused by potholes over the last 14 months including one student who suffered a blowout during a lesson.



Paul has now come up with a number of handy tips for drivers, with the key one being how to spot a deep pothole before it's too late.

Paul, who has run a driving school in Sutton-in-Ashfield for 16 years, said: "If you look at the colour of the pothole as you approach it, you can usually tell how deep it is."



"The darker the pothole means the more shade there is inside so the darker the pothole the deeper the pothole. "

"I advise students to slow down and where possible to drive around these potholes." "

Paul also said motorists can spot clues to larger craters before it is too late.

He added: "The colour and texture of the road surface can give you a clue as to up coming potholes. "

"If you see lots of chunks of tarmac or stones on the road, you can usually tell there is a pothole close by and the more that has come out of it the deeper it is going to be. "

"When you see these stones it is best to slow down and keep an eye out for where the pothole will be." "

Paul says statistically, most potholes develop near kerbs, and says following the tyre tracks of other cars can help careering into a crater.

He added: "Look for the line of least resistance, on really heavily potholed roads you often see two tracks where everyone has gone to avoid the holes. "

"Potholes are not going away so it's important to know how to deal with them and how other road users will react to them as well. "

"Vulnerable road users, cyclists and people on scooters don't want to go through potholes which can burst their tyres."



"They will probably just suddenly move around the pothole which we need to anticipate." "

Paul says potholes have become one of the major concerns for his students.

He added: "Lots of students panic about them as they see other drivers suddenly swerve away from them without looking and so on. "

"They are concerned about damage to the vehicle, but in avoiding them, they may strike the kerb, get too close to other cars or put nearby cyclists at risk. "

"I teach them to observe the situation and only swerve out of the way if it's safe, otherwise, there is no option but to go through them."

"I only swerve or steer the wheel out of the way if we are in an emergency. Having to do that knocks students' confidence." "

The government has announced £1.6 billion funding for national road repairs.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said English councils will be ranked according to pothole hotspots.

Last year Surrey came out worst with 3,418 pothole damage claims made for just 3,410 miles of road - a rate of one claim every mile.