A LARGE pothole in Winchester has left the resident who lives beside it wondering why she pays her taxes.

Avril Elmes has asked Hampshire County Council to fix the hole, which is in Fivefields Road, one of the busiest routes on the Highcliffe estate.

She said her husband also flagged it up, along with their neighbours, and some other people further down the street.

“It’s disgusting – we pay all of these council taxes and they can’t even fill in one pothole.”

It appeared after the snow in December and she estimated that it was six-inches deep and more than two-feet across.

Mrs Elmes, who is registered disabled, added that she had to brush away stones and grit that is churned out of the pothole each day.

“There are stones coming out of the hole and some of them hit the front windows of my house after the cars run over them,” she said.

No panes have been broken yet, but Mrs Elmes is calling on council chiefs to repair Fivefields Road as soon as possible.

It comes after the county authority paid £110,000 in damages last year to motorists who damaged their cars because of potholes.

The figure was nearly twice as much compared to the year before.

Recent work carried out by the council includes resurfacing Sarum Road between Winchester and Farley Mount.

They also filled a large pothole in St Cross Road, St Cross, on Tuesday, but the one in Fivefields Road is still not fixed.

Hampshire County Council said the problem in Highcliffe would be dealt with as “a matter of priority”.

A spokesperson for the authority said: “Extra resources are being put into pothole repairs in the area and this year, Operation Resilience will be put into action.

“This is a new approach to highway maintenance and follows Operation Restore, a programme to bring Hampshire’s roads back to the condition they were in before the winters of 2008/09 and 2009/10.

“Operation Resilience is the second stage of this work and will strengthen the resistance of roads to severe weather events such as snow, ice and flooding.”