Although Northampton County Council carries out regular inspections of the roads, the frequencies depend on the type of inspections being carried out, and the type of the road concerned. In the case of some of our minor roads, a whole year can elapse between inspections and any claims brought against Northampton County Council (NCC) for damage to your Bicycle or Car and possibly even YOU caused by these faults may prove to be unsuccessful if NCC can say that it has not been reported.

With this and a couple of recent incidents involving damage to club members bikes, we are launching a scheme that will provide a forum for us all to report road faults such as potholes or large cracks in the road surface we see - basically anything that could be a danger to us as road users should be reported if possible. We are hoping that in putting pressure on the council and there contractors in this way, they will begin to take a more pro-active approach to road maintenance.

For faults in Northamptonshire the procedure to report a fault is to inform NCC and their Contractors Atkins, thorough the "Clarence System" by:

• E-mail to clarence@northamptonshire.gov.uk
• On-line form http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/Transport/PEM/PEM+Homepage.htm
• Freephone from a land line on – 0800 232323
• From a mobile - 01604 883694

Try to include as much information as possible as to the location (if it is outside a house, quote the address), and if you can include photographs, or digital images these would be great too. Once the fault is logged with Atkins they should reply to you with a reference number.

The on-line details at http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/Transport/PEM/PEM+Homepage.htm allow you to view progress (however you reported the fault) and to view reports of routine inspections. There is also lots of other information on highways (that includes some information on cycling and walking not just paved roads).

So that the progress of these repairs can monitored, please also enter the details in the database on our e-mail group, which you will need to join (for free) before you can see the database. Once you have signed up, go to the e-mail group and click on Database on the left. Also if anyone notices that a previously reported fault has been repaired then it is possible to edit the entry in the database (but please don't delete the entry) to show that the work has been carried out.

We hope that this database will prove to be very useful, not only to chase up the repairs themselves, but also in the unfortunate case of any claims being brought for damage or injury - you will have evidence of when the fault was previously reported. There is also a photo album for your pics - please put any pothole photos into a sub-album in the "Potholes" album. Please label them so that they can be linked with an entry on the database, i.e. not just "Pothole".

If you are travelling in adjacent counties then do add potholes to our database (but not if further afield). Information below should help reporting:

For faults in Milton Keynes region the procedure to report a fault is to inform MK Council by:

• E-mail to envservices@milton-keynes.gov.uk
• By telephone - 01908 252570

For faults in Warwickshire the procedure to report a fault is to inform Warwickshire Council by:

• E-mail to CountyHighways@warwickshire.gov.uk
• On the online form
• By telephone - 01926 412515

For faults in Bedfordshire the procedure to report a fault is to inform Bedfordshire Council by:

• E-mail to highways@deed.bedfordshire.gov.uk
• By telephone - 01234 228661

In addition, the British Motorcyclists Federation, who obviously have the same concern's as cyclists about the state of the roads, have an excellent page at http://www.bmf.co.uk/report-a-road/index.html where details for all authorities in the UK can be found. So if you're on holiday somewhere you can find all the details you need to report a road fault.

Any questions, comments or assistance, please contact or post to our e-mail group.