Flabbergasted villagers were left furious when a police officer claimed leaving potholes in the road is considered one of the most effective ways to slow speeding traffic.
During a meeting in the small village of Pentlow, near Sudbury in Essex, officers expressed their support said there are advantages of having potholes present – leaving villagers stunned.
'It was extraordinary,' one local said. 'The official police advice apparently is that potholes are a good thing, so leave craters in the road because they slow down drivers.
'We were also advised to park our cars to form a chicane like you get on race-tracks as another way of reducing speeds.'
'Our main street is in a pretty bad way but the council don't seem to bother about small places - there is a stretch of busy road near here that had dozens of huge holes and had to be closed completely for repairs.
'But we only get a few dozen cars a day through here and at night it's completely quiet.
'Leaving the craters in the road would probably cause drivers to swerve suddenly and that could cause an accident too.'
Another villager said: 'If the policeman was being funny frankly it wasn't amusing - road safety is very important to us - a lot of cars and vans go much too fast through this village.
'Traffic often exceeds the 30mph limit here and it's very dangerous for kids and pets apart from anything else.
'I saw a one driver recently changing his wheel after going through - it is easy to pick up a puncture or damage a rim. But frankly anything that slows traffic down is welcome.'
Parish councillor Melanie Davies said: 'Anything that helps slow drivers down is welcome - and if the officer was being serious then it might serve as means of making motorists driver more slowly. '
The police officer's comments come in the wake of a significant increase in breakdowns related to potholes. Recent reports indicate that these incidents have surged by almost a third compared to the previous year, with AA crews now responding to approximately 1,700 pothole-related incidents per day.
Recognising the widespread issue of potholes across England, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in the March budget an additional funding of £200 million to address this problem. The aim is to increase the total budget for tackling potholes from £500 million to £700 million.