A SECOND road repairing machine has been drafted into action to tackle the blight of potholes across the Borders.

Over two years ago, Scottish Borders Council (SBC) acquired a JCB Pothole Pro – which costs around £165,000 or can be hired for around £600 a month – amid growing concern at the poor state of the region’s roads.

The Pothole Pro is seen as a way of patching up roads and keeping them safe.

It combines three machines in one and can repair a pothole in less than eight minutes – four times quicker than standard methods and at half the cost of current solutions.

Now a second Pothole Pro has been hired and drafted into action by the local authority, members of SBC's External Services/Monitoring Group will be informed when they next week.

A report to the meeting states: “Our Pothole Pro continues to provide an alternative to traditional patching methods with the recent addition of a second hired Pothole Pro which has been working in the Berwickshire area, targeting first time repairs as part of an ongoing trial.”

Up to September 30, Pothole Pros have completed road repairs on Weensland Road, Hawick, the A703 & A701 in Tweeddale, the A7 north of Galashiels in Eildon and the A6105 east of Duns.

The total number of repairs completed is 1,381, amounting to 9766m2 of asphalt.

The report adds: “We believe that the deployment of the Pothole Pro has helped the council meet its obligations to repair the roads in a timely manner, and whilst the Pothole Pro is only one technique and approach to what is an integrated management regime which we deploy across our roads, it is important as the type, nature of the repair is permanent, and this will help make us more efficient, and improve the road user experience, whilst also allowing us to reduce our fleet.”