Nearly £4 million of government funding has been allocated to fix potholes in Oxfordshire.

The £3,706,000 total is part of the Budget announced yesterday by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

The Oxfordshire package is part of a £200 million pound package to fix potholes across the UK.

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Delivering his budget speech, Mr Hunt said the “wet then cold winter” resulted in him receiving “strong representations” from MPs and councillors about “the curse of potholes”.

 

Some Oxfordshire residents have become increasingly frustrated by the problems caused by potholes.

One concerned resident from the Oxford area, who did not want to be named, explained that he had lost the front wheel of his car after driving over a pothole.

He said: “The state of the roads is absolutely appalling, and they are all pretty bad.

“Every direction I travel in there are potholes.

Bicester Advertiser:

“It is a matter of the council waiting until it has got so bad to fix them and the disrepair of the roads is only getting worse.”

Councillor Liam Walker, representative for Hanborough and Minster Lovell Division and shadow cabinet member for highways on Oxfordshire County Council, welcomed the chancellor’s announcement.

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He said: “I think residents will be delighted to hear the chancellor announce in his budget more funding to tackle potholes which are a nuisance for both motorists and us councillors who receive regular emails about them.

“I’ve had more complaints about potholes over the past few months than ever before and numbers from the county council seem to show less have been fixed over the course of the last year which is a concern.

Bicester Advertiser:

“I hope this additional £3.7 million will help the council fix more potholes quickly but also ensuring the standard is high as residents are rightly frustrated when a repair simply fails some weeks later and has to be done again.”

But some say the proposed funding is inadequate and will not solve the whole problem.

It has been estimated that the total cost of fixing all potholes on minor roads in England and Wales would be over £12 billion.

Mark Morrell, who runs a Twitter account under the name Mr Pothole, said: “It is a smoke and mirrors game by the government yet again.

“They cut £400m from road maintenance funding last year, this year and next year.

“The government have reduced a total £1.2 billion over three years and are giving out £200m just before local elections.

“There is a £12 billion roads maintenance backlog not being addressed by government and authorities.”