The ‘Dragon Patcher’ is repairing hundreds of the county’s potholes

It fills potholes five times faster than traditional methods.

A specialist machine called the 'dragon patcher' has made around 1,700 repairs to potholes in Cambridgeshire roads.

It can repair up to 150 potholes a day - each one taking around three minutes.

The 'dragon' fires flames to dry out the road surface, which is then cleaned with compressed air and sealed with a stone mix and hot bitumen.

Cambridgeshire County Council's chair of the highways and community infrastructure committee, Cllr Mathew Shuter said:"Our roads are important to us and we are listening to people's frustrations by spending a further £3m on pothole repairs and have a programme to resurface roads. This innovative piece of kit will help us to maintain our roads in Cambridgeshire more efficiently.

"The dragon patcher is around five times faster than traditional methods, it is mobile which is particularly good for rural areas and can do more work for the money.

"We work hard to ensure our roads are in a good condition and prevent them from deteriorating. We have set guidance on how to spend the funding available to ensure it is managed efficiently to get the best results.

"Having this exciting piece of equipment means we can cover the whole county and it is not just about filling more potholes, but improving the quality of the work as well.

The county is asking that people report potholes that need filling at highwaysreporting.cambridgeshire.gov.uk.