CHILDREN’S dolls have been popping up in a Swindon pothole, leaving locals bemused.

The spooky dolls’ heads stare at passing drivers from a bin-lid sized hole in Mill Lane, over the M4, near East Wichel.

Drivers noticed the first doll’s head appear around a fortnight ago; then she disappeared.

That doll was replaced last week with a blonde-bobbed beauty complete with a pink bow tied in her hair.

The plastic head-and-shoulders doll stands around six inches tall and is partly secured to the road with a hefty rock.

The pothole dolls are the brainchild of Wroughton dad-of-three Neville Daytona.

He said: “The roads are disgusting. Everyone’s moaning about it.

“I ride a motorbike, cycle and drive. On a motorcycle or bicycle you have to swerve all over the road to avoid the potholes; if you don’t you’re wincing.

“So I thought I’d do something amusing about it.”

Neville was left inspired by pothole warriors from across the world, including one Manchester man who daubed obscene graffiti around holes in the road after finding it encouraged the council to repair them more quickly.

He landed upon the idea of putting a doll’s head in the pothole, picking the dolls up in charity shops for small change. He says he now has a small store of them.

“I was going to call them ladies of the street, but I thought it wasn’t very PC,” said Neville, who describes himself as “mature in age, not spirit”.

The dad-of-three, who has lived in Wroughton for three decades, said his family think the doll’s head idea is “brilliant”.

It has captured the attention of fellow Wroughton residents.

A picture of the first doll, shared on a village Facebook group, received almost 270 “likes”.

Commenting below the image, Steve Bessent said: “Brilliant. Let’s hope this starts a craze.

“Don’t forget to use the old Action Men as well.”

Neville added: “It’s childish, it’s clean humour and it’s just funny.

“If it makes someone smile it’s worth it.”

No stranger to using humour to draw attention to serious issues, Neville has previously attached googly-eyes to dog excrement left by irresponsible pet owners around Wroughton.

However, despite Neville’s creative response, the Mill Lane pothole shows no sign of being filled in.

It has instead been fenced off together with one lane of the road, forcing traffic to slow down.