App to help locate potholes

A GOLEEN resident has come up with a novel way for Cork County Council to locate potholes across the region.

Daithí McArdle is suggesting a pothole ‘app’ and is willing to meet Council officials to explain it.

‘This app would have a GPS locator and would be simple enough to set up. We could tie it in with CoderDojo clubs and get them to develop it,’ Daithí told The Southern Star.

‘It could be then be given to the likes of postmen who travel the main and backroads more than anyone else. They could log the potholes and send them directly to Cork County Council via the app.’

Daithí hopes his idea might generate money for Cork County Council as they could license it to other Councils.

Meanwhile, a band from Bandon have written a song about potholes that is proving popular.

The Shruggs – made up of James Downing and Kees Hendrickx – released their single ‘Potholes’ at the end of last month and have a video to accompany it, which has already clocked up over 2,500 views on their Facebook page.

‘It has been getting a lot of attention since we released it and it has been played on several radio stations and a lot of news websites have picked up on it,’ James told The Southern Star.

‘Kees wrote the song after he was out driving near Bandon one day and he hit two potholes and was really annoyed.’

Ironically, when it came to making the video – which was shot by Dan and Jonathan Holland – the duo came up against one problem.

‘We were trying for ages to shoot the video and we had earmarked locations with potholes but when we went to shoot the video, we found the Council had filled them in already! So we had to go elsewhere and find other potholes for the video.’

Kees plays the main character in the video, while his niece Holly, who plays ‘Supergirl’, plants flowers in the potholes that he comes across. James even gets a starring role and plays a Council worker, complete with shovel and hi-vis jacket.

‘We played a gig last weekend in Bandon and played the song twice, due to the reaction from the crowd,’ added James.

‘Potholes’ is currently on release and available on Spotify and iTunes.