A SCHEME pioneered in Eastleigh to enable residents to report minor highway defects is to be piloted across the whole of Hampshire.

Eastleigh council's Check It Out Sam scheme was hailed a huge success and was very popular with the public for reporting potholes or pavement defects before it was dropped five years ago in a bid to save cash.

Even now, the borough still receives the occasional Check It Out card highlighting problems with roads and pavements.

Now, Hampshire County Council's Eastleigh Highway Management Advisory Panel has been told that a similar scheme is to be introduced under the banner Hampshire Road Check.

Panel chairman Councillor Colin Davidovitz, who had previously called for the reintroduction of Check It Out Sam, said he was delighted that rather than confining it to Eastleigh the scheme would be extended across the whole of the county.

Highways chief officer Colin Taylor told the panel it was hoped a website where people could report highway defects would be launched later in the year.

Residents could then get online at Hampshire libraries to report defects - but for those who did not wish to contact the county by e-mail there would be a single county-wide telephone number: 0845 8504422.

Eastleigh councillor David Airey said: "It is really good news. When we had the Check It Out Sam scheme ourselves it was always a very good scheme.

"I was sorry when we had to knock it on the head."

Fellow Eastleigh councillor Godfrey Olson said the downside would be the response time to issues reported by the public. He told the panel: "I have been raising an issue to repair railings at the junction of Oakmount Road and Winchester Road which was the result of an accident four months ago and still those railings have not been replaced.

"I wouldn't want a scheme where the response time is so long that people say it's a waste of time and we won't bother."

Cllr Davidovitz said the scheme would need monitoring once it was introduced to make sure response times were good.

He added: "It is important for residents to have repairs made to the road or the footpath but it is also more important for Hampshire to know where things are going wrong."

Mr Taylor said part of the message to get across was that there had to be some realism and the county couldn't do everything at once.