Pothole poems could scoop an iPod

The potty contest is the brainchild of road maintenance campaign site, Potholes.co.uk, and attempts to highlight the blight of the nation’s poor road surfaces during the UK’s annual “pothole season.”

This year the site has already recorded a 13 percent year-on-year rise in the number of pothole-related axle and suspension claims after the wintry weather at the start of 2009.

And Rotherham’s roads have suffered in the wake of the big chill of past weeks.

In a play on the traditional 14-line sonnet, the public are being invited to submit 140-character poems about their pothole experiences or outpourings of anger about the state of our roads via Twitter.

The top three entries will win an iPod Touch.

Motorists and road users can also submit their Twitterprose via the www.potholes.co.uk website itself.

Potholes.co.uk came up with this: “Wheel-breaking, money-sucking, life-sapping episode; All hail potholes, the black holes of the road.”

Duncan McClure Fisher, founder of Potholes.co.uk., said: “We’re not looking for a Pullitzer Prize winner here, it’s a spot of fun to once again highlight the embarrassing state of our roads.”

Britain’s coldest month, January, accelerates the ‘freeze and thaw’ effect following the heavy snowfall and ice the UK has experienced over the last few weeks.

During this phenomenon, water falling as rain or snow seeps into cracks in the road surfaces, freezes and expands, causing a higher than average number of potholes.

Visit www.potholes.co.uk or follow @potholesuk on Twitter.