Bucks Council releases £5m from its reserves to fix potholes

Buckinghamshire Council is to spend £5million from its reserves to fix potholes as a ‘criminal crater’ is reported in one village.

The injection of extra cash for road repairs was approved as the authority set its budget up to 2027 last week.

The council unanimously voted in favour of spending extra money on highways after an amendment put forward by Conservative councillors Gareth Williams and Diana Blamires.

It means that a total of £110million has now been set aside for road repairs and improvements over the next four years.

The extra funds come as one of the largest potholes in Buckinghamshire has been reported on Brackley Road west of Westbury.

Road campaigner Mark Morrell – aka Mr Pothole – claimed the defect was 10cm deep by 1.9 metres long and 0.9m wide.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), he said: “This pothole is now getting deeper and more dangerous.

“You can’t avoid it when vehicles travelling pass on other at this location. Real hazard for cyclists with its position in the carriageway.”

He added that leaving the ‘crater’ any longer would be ‘criminal’ and called on Bucks Council to fix it.

The pothole, which is said to be ‘causing drivers to swerve into oncoming traffic’, has been registered on the council’s Fix My Street service.

Council leader Martin Tett has also ordered Buckinghamshire Highways to investigate the defect.

The council’s recent announcement of an extra £5million to patch up Buckinghamshire’s roads marks the second year running it has released this figure from its reserves to tackle the county’s pothole crisis.

Speaking in the council chamber last week, Cllr Diana Blamires, who represents Wing, said that fixing the roads was one of the top priorities for residents.

She told councillors: “Residents are rightly annoyed about being jolted along roads pockmarked with potholes.

“The abominable weather last winter led to more potholes in the first three weeks of January than in the whole of the previous year.”

She added: “Another harsh winter has been a car crash for our roads. Storm Henk was followed by Storm Isha and then Storm Jocelyn.

“This led to a staggering 540 emergency callouts in just three weeks. Moonscape cavities appeared almost overnight. In just 10 minutes, five cars were damaged by a hole that opened up overnight in Wing.”

The councillor also praised the council’s highways teams who mended roads in high winds and torrential rain, including 20 teams who were fixing potholes round the clock in January at any one time.