HAMPSHIRE’S team of pothole busters have hit the streets with a new jet-powered road repair machine.

The high-speed invention, called a jetpatcher, can fill up to 2,000 potholes in a week.

It works by blasting potholes with hot air to remove the debris and then spraying in a mix of bitumen and aggregate under pressure which fills and seals it.

It means two men – a driver and operator – can fill a pothole in a few minutes for about £60 – and the road is ready for traffic immediately. By comparison, a traditional gang with a truckload of asphalt can take longer and cost more.

Two severe winters have left local roads pockmarked.

Hampshire, highway chiefs estimate it will take “many millions of pounds’’ to repair all the potholes.

Council bosses boosted the roads repair budget by £2.6m last November, but more may still be needed.

Nationally it is estimated there are 1.6million potholes.

In addition to the jetpatcher, the council has sent out 50 gangs of pothole busters across the county. Potholes are formed when water gets inside a road surface and then freezes. The ice expands and widens the crack.

Some of the potholes busters gangs are pictured here with Cllr Mel Kendal.