A new mobile phone app that detects potholes is being trialled on the county’s roads with experts from the United States.

Surrey County Council (SCC) has been testing an innovative new technology called Street Bump, which identifies road bumps through a mobile phone’s motion sensor.

When a vehicle hits a bump it transmits data with a location from the phone’s GPS. If a number of drivers hit the same spot then the system identifies it as a pothole.

Richard Bolton, SCC’s local highway services street manager, said: "Some of our team downloaded the app for six months and the data they collected was fed back to Boston to help with its testing and development."

The aim is to create a map of road conditions quicker than using traditional inspections.

Road safety measures such as speed bumps will already be included in the system to ensure they do not show up as problems.

Mr Bolton added: "We’ll remain in contact with the city of Boston and keep a close eye on how Street Bump develops to see if it could benefit Surrey in the future."