Buckinghamshire Council fixed 30,000 potholes in 2023/2034 and ‘expects to repair more this year’, its leader has said.

Councillor Martin Tett suggested that the Conservative-controlled authority may have been able to repair more roads if it had not been for the ‘dreadful winter’.

He provided the update on the county’s roads during a wide-ranging speech at the council’s annual general meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Addressing a packed council chamber in Aylesbury, the leader said: “I anticipate this year we will repair more. I am expecting that 30,000 to be significantly increased this coming year.”

Cllr Tett said the council’s road repairs included its ‘plane and patch’ programme, where whole sections of road that have deteriorated are resurfaced.

READ MORE: Arriva’s plans to stop running some bus routes in Bucks ‘a tragedy’, say passengers

The council has also started looking at new technologies to fix the county’s roads, he said, and has started using new mastic, a surfacing material renowned for its waterproofing properties.

Cllr Tett told the meeting: “It is based from old tyres effectively being ground down and reused.”

The leader also pointed out how the council had deployed its three-in-one ‘pothole pro’ vehicle to speed up repairing potholes and road surfaces over the last year.

The machine works by cutting into a road surface, before smoothing out the defective area, bordering the hole neatly and then collecting debris.

Cllr Tett also hailed councillors’ decision to release £5 million from the council reserves to fix Buckinghamshire’s potholes.

The surprise additional funds – announced in February – are on top of the £105 million already earmarked for the county’s road network in the budget for the next four years.

The move came after councillors voted in favour of a motion put forward by Conservative councillors Gareth Williams and Diana Blamires.

It is the second year in a row that councillors have committed an extra £5 million for road repairs, due to a rising number of defects caused by wet winters.

Cllr Tett touched on this in his update this week, telling councillors: “We had that dreadful winter. It hasn’t really stopped.”

He continued: “The way in which we can actually repair the roads is being impinged by the fact that when you have a logistics programme and it rains again, the logistics has to be rethought.

“Something that was scheduled for one week gets shunted for one week, that knocks on and so on and so on.

“Residents get irritated when they see schedules slipping, but it is very tricky with the amount of rain we have been having. Sometimes, when it is intermittent, it is almost worse.”

Be the first to know about all things breaking news, court, and crime across Bucks! 📱💡 Unlimited local news, an ad-free app, and a digital replica of our print edition—all with 80% fewer ads on our site. Subscribe now for a faster news experience, click here for details.