Officials have apologised for taking more than two months to fill in a pothole-riddled road.

The craters on Green Lane, at Crosby-on-Eden were first reported by Ken Kirkpatrick on December 5 - but it was not until Tuesday this week that the authority's highways team finally carried out temporary repairs.

It is not the first time that Mr Kirkpatrick, of Henderson Croft, Low Crosby, has contacted the council to report pothole problems on Green Lane.

In 2011 he had to fork out £132 for two new tyres for his MG car after driving through a pothole filled with water. He tried to claim the money back from Cumbria County Council, but his attempts were unsuccessful.

He told the News & Star : "It's the same this time around. Unless you know they're there, when the weather is bad you can't see them and you drive straight through them.

"I've already paid once before and luckily I haven't had to this time.

"Some of them are about 10 inches deep and they're about 20 inches in length. If you go through you could crack an alloy."

Mr Kirkpatrick said he had received no correspondence from the county council after reporting the potholes, and that waiting two months for them to be repaired was unacceptable.

He said: "It makes you wonder what our council tax is going towards. There's other potholes in the area but after reporting these ones and nothing being done, I didn't bother reporting them. You feel like you're wasting your time."

Mr Kirkpatrick said he was pleased to discover the council had filled in the potholes earlier this week, but feared the problem could arise again.

"Tarmac has been put in, but all it takes is a cold snap and they'll open back up," he said.

Last month, the Government announced it will hand out £1.2bn in funding for local roads across the 2017/18 financial year, with more than £2m to be handed to Cumbria to repair the county's potholes.

A spokesman for Cumbria County Council confirmed the potholes on Green Lane were filled in temporarily on Tuesday, adding that the authority will be carrying out resurfacing work on Green Lane in due course.

He said: "We can only apologise that this wasn't dealt with sooner.

"A team has been out to make the road safe and we're hoping to resurface the road at the end of February or in early March.

"Money will be used from the budget to carry out the work."