Mr Pothole wins Highways Champion Award

“I did not know you got awards for being a pain in the backside of authorities”

After 13 years of challenging councils and government over Britain’s failing roads, Mark Morrell—better known as Mr Pothole—has received a Highways Champion Fellowship Medal at the first-ever Highways Champions Awards, established by Highways Magazine.

The medal recognises a campaign that has brought road maintenance and road-user safety to public attention—and made a lasting impression on the highways industry. Key milestones include:

Founding National Pothole Day.

Using legal notices and persistent campaigning to help secure the resurfacing of millions of pounds’ worth of roads.

Reporting thousands of potholes that were subsequently repaired.

Providing evidence to the Transport Select Committee for its Filling the Gap report.

Helping thousands of people with advice on pothole damage claims.

Raising awareness through high-profile stunts, including filling a pothole with Pot Noodles—a story that attracted hundreds of millions of hits and coverage in newspapers in the UK and abroad, including India.

Taking a tank to the Department for Transport in central London for the Pothole Britain documentary, then driving an orange tank around Parliament Square and Whitehall for National Pothole Day 2020.

Becoming one of the world’s best-known pothole campaigners and a go-to media expert, giving thousands of interviews, including to international outlets.

Educating politicians from all parties about how potholes form, effective repairs and the risks to road users—while showing them how cracks, rutting and delamination can reveal the condition of a carriageway.

Creating The Pothole Truth, a website sharing information and insight into Britain’s pothole crisis, informed by Morrell’s research, investigations, opinions and hands-on experience of the country’s road maintenance problems.

Morrell thanked Highways Magazine for establishing the new annual awards, as well as the event sponsors for supporting them. He gave special thanks to Dominic Browne, Editor of Highways Magazine, and his team for the hard work that went into creating such a great event.

“I did not know you got awards for being a pain in the backside of authorities,” he said. He also thanked Neil Levett for nominating him.