The daily battle to smooth over the cracks

Main, the team gets stuck in to the potholes on Woodhall Road

They swap tales of what people call them - which they say are not fit for printing - as they wait patiently for their tools to reach the correct temperature.

As soon as the heat hits 180C, the metal tampers are removed and the hot asphalt which has just been poured into a hole in the road is flattened. There's more waiting while the material cools - the kind of "hanging around" that gets the public hot under the collar and inspires the calling of those names - then a roller is moved slowly across to ensure the repair is solid.

Hot bitumen is poured round the edges, and the job is done.

Well . . . one hole is filled anyway. The men move a few yards further along Woodhall Road in Colinton and get their pickaxes out again ready to lift more cracked and split tarmac, and fill yet another pothole.

It's painstaking work - and there are thousands more out there.

"It's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge," laughs Terry Webster, the team's supervisor, who's appeared to see how they're getting on.

"It really is never-ending. Mind you, I've never seen the roads as bad and I've been doing this for 30 years."

Thanks to the recent snowfall, the holes in the roads are opening up faster than a chain of American coffee shops. Indeed as one wag recently put it: "There are more holes in Edinburgh's roads than in the business case for the tram."

Which is why the council has launched an intensive repairs programme, which will see 450,000 spent over the next three weeks, filling in these dangerous blots on the roads.

That may sound a bit overblown as a description for a pothole, but ask the hundreds of cyclists and drivers who end up axle-deep in one every year - with burst tyres, damaged suspension and a repair bill running into thousands - just how monstrous they can be.

In fact potholes are estimated to cause as many as one in five mechanical failures on British roads every year, costing motorists around 320 million.

It's also expensive for councils: an AA report recently showed that 50m was paid out by Britain's local authorities to drivers in compensation just last year.

In Edinburgh - branded the worst authority in Scotland for road repairs by the motoring organisation just yesterday - the compensation bill for pothole damage since November is already standing at more than 9600.

The council has also handled the largest single claim in Scotland for car damage - a whopping 1700.

Indeed, on average, around 180 motorists have won claims every year since 1996, forcing the council to pay out more than 300,000 in total.

"It's the council's biggest expenditure in compensation to people I think," says chargehand, 48-year-old Scott Preston, who's been filling potholes for 11 years.

"People hate them. Motorists are the worst though. They hate the fact that there are potholes, then they hate the fact that we have to close off or narrow a road so they can be repaired. The public react badly - we're an inconvenience. The abuse we get . . . well it's not fit to print. But some people are never happy," he laughs.

Terry adds: "I think people don't understand what the job involves. We have inspectors who are always out looking at the road surfaces and making sure that holes are filled before they get dangerous. But it takes a great deal of planning, especially if it's on a main road as it will have to close while the work is done.

"And even semi-permanent repairs can't be done quickly as it's all about temperatures and it has to be done correctly as it may have to last for up to 12 months before a permanent repair can be done."

Scott agrees: "That annoys people too as they think the work's only just been done and now they're back digging it up again. But a permanent repair usually involves digging up quite a large surface area and re-surfacing the whole thing, while we can do these semi-permanent repairs more quickly with the pickaxe and at least cars won't be damaged in the meantime."

There are around 788 miles of roads and 80 miles of cycleways in Edinburgh and the council carries out 25,000 road repairs in a normal year - total repairs this financial year are already above 33,000.

Last winter around 10,000 permanent repairs were carried out over six weeks in February and March compared with 3500 in 2009 - that figure is expected to be beaten this year.

And there's little that can be done to prevent it, says Terry.

"It's just wear and tear," he explains. "Obviously a lot of the roads were never built to take the kind of traffic they do. One of the worst roads in the area we cover is Curriehill Road. It's just two lanes and it's used by every vehicle imaginable, especially massive lorries and the weight of those, and buses, eventually breaks the road surface."

Potholes occur when water seeps into tiny cracks in the road surface. It freezes and expands, and when it thaws again the cracks are bigger. This process continues slowly until what was once a smooth road surface is suddenly filled with dips and holes.

Weather aside, another major problem for the road maintenance crews are the utility companies. "The hole we've just repaired was one created by work done by a utility company," says Scott. "In fact, if you look at this whole area of road it's like a patchwork because it's been dug up so many times by these companies.

"Our inspectors do check the work after it's been done, but they're not always there while it's happening and sometimes it's not up to scratch. They've got deadlines to meet, and so if it's cold or raining they'll still fill the hole back in and doing it in those weather conditions will mean it doesn't set right and ultimately a pothole will happen. That's when we have to come along and do it properly."

They may think it's a thankless task, but Councillor Robert Aldridge, environmental leader, says the staff's efforts have been noted. "I'd like to thank staff and contractors who have been out in all weather conditions, working hard to keep the city moving.

"The job itself can be potentially dangerous and is very physically demanding and these workers deserve credit for the job they do.

"The extreme weather has resulted in an increase in potholes and squads are out in force, with a programme in place to carry out permanent repairs throughout the city."

Eleven four-men teams are out on the city's roads right now filling potholes - and Scott's team (Eddie Cairney, Craig Fowler and Willie Togher) aims to get through 130 yards of roads every day.

"People just think we come along and fill in a hole. It's a lot more complex than that," says Scott. "But we'd better get on in case the weather changes. That's the only thing that stops us."