POTHOLES that continue to plague the county's roads will not be wiped out anytime soon, a transport head has warned.

Oxfordshire County Council ordered the repair of more than 25,800 road and footpath ruts in the past year alone, but its cabinet member for transport admitted it is 'fighting' even to maintain the current crumbling state of roads.

David Nimmo Smith said that the roads 'will not get any better' despite a Government grant pledged specifically for potholes, insisting there is nowhere near enough cash to cover costs of smoothing over the council's 2,800 mile road network.

He said: "The mantra we have is to maintain the roads as best we can. We need around £160m to bring roads up to motorway standard, and £20m a year to keep that level. We haven't got that money.

"We are fighting just to keep the roads in the condition they are at the moment, and I admit some of them are less than satisfactory. Some people don't accept that - as a member of the public myself I don't accept it, I don't like the condition of our roads. But we haven't got the money to deal with it."

He welcomed a £1.3m cash injection from the Government's Pothole Action Fund for the 2017-18 financial year and said it would 'go a long way' to maintain roads, but said much more cash was needed for a pothole-free Oxfordshire.

He said the 'dragon' machine brought in to blast potholes with flames was giving 'more bank for our buck'.

But chairman of Kennington Parish Council Colin Charlett called on the council to cough up more, branding the county's roads 'diabolical'.

He said: "As soon as you come over the county boundary you can tell you're in Oxfordshire. It's awful.

"They come round and chuck a bit of tarmac on it, whack it down and a year later they have to come back and do the same thing."

North Oxford resident Philip Cresswell has complained of potholes puncturing Wentworth Road where he lives, which have repeatedly collapsed despite being 'fixed' three times in the past year.

The 63-year-old said: "I don't expect them to blitz them all but they ought to do something new that will last."

Handyman Mr Cresswell said he even drives around with a sign in the back of his van saying 'I'm not drunk, I'm just avoiding potholes'.

Council spokesman Martin Crabtree said recurring defects can indicate 'underlying problems' that may merit the road for inclusion in the council's planned maintenance work programme.

He added: "We are constantly working on different techniques and treatment types. Permanent repairs come with a two-year guarantee and this is audited showing a 98 per cent pass rate."

Mr Crabtree said failures are repaired at the contractor's cost and described the state of the roads as 'generally stable'.

He added: "Our road conditions on the whole are in line with than the national averages - there is absolutely nothing unique or unusual about Oxfordshire. We work all year round and all hours to maintain our roads and fix potholes."

To report a pothole go to fixmystreet.oxfordshire.gov.uk

Potholes may need urgent attention if they are more than 40 millimetres in depth and/or 150 millimetres in width, or, as a simple guide:

The depth of a milk bottle

The size of a dustbin lid

Call the county council on 0345 310 1111 if the pothole is bigger than the sizes above.

What Mr Nimmo Smith has said about potholes over the years:

March 2014: Mr Nimmo Smith admitted the council was struggling to ‘keep Oxfordshire open for business’ due to the state of the roads. He said the council would need a one-off amount of about £167m to fix all the potholes and other defects as well as an annual upkeep budget of £23m.

February 2015: After a the council’s road maintenance budget was cut by £2.9m, he said: “We’re not ducking the issue. We have been saying that we need £160m to bring our roads up to standard but we haven’t got that money and we’re unlikely to get that money.”

Jan 2016: “We will not be complacent and we will keep asking for central government money to bring our roads up to a better quality.”

August 2016: “The harsh reality is we are unlikely to be able to make the issue of potholes go away without more money from central Government.”

In comparison:

- In neighbouring Buckinghamshire the council received £300k to tackle potholes next year and in addition it has earmarked £852k from next year’s budget.

- Wiltshire received £1.3m while Northamptonshire was allocated £1.17m and Milton Keynes £280,000.

When potholes are reported they are defined into three categories:

Category 1 – for potholes or other highway fault that poses an immediate safety risk to the public. The response time for a repair (either temporary to make safe or permanent) is between 2 – 24 hours depending on the problem.

Category 2 – These are potholes or other highway faults that pose a safety risk, although not immediate, to the public. The response time for these is up to 28 days and would involve a permanent repair.

Category 3 – Non-safety related faults which do not require a repair.