A ‘SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper’ way of repairing potholes on minor roads will continue throughout this financial year due to funding pressures.

Oxfordshire County Council decided to switch from a ‘cut and fill’ repair to a ‘sweep and fill’ method last year and cabinet member for transport Yvonne Constance confirmed it would carry on this year.

County councillor Lynda Atkins posed the question at a meeting of full council and described the new method as ‘chucking in a bucket of tar and running away’, which left road surfaces uneven and tarmac littering the road.

Mrs Atkins said some of the repairs carried out in the past year had been ‘lamentable’ and asked the cabinet if they had costed to re-do them.

Mrs Constance blamed the state of the roads for the failure of some of the repairs.

She said: “On some occasions these defects do fail but the cause is usually because of the overall state of the road rather than because the repair is of poor quality and can also happen when potholes are repaired using 'cut & fill'.

“Highways officers do monitor the quality of defects and raise concerns with the contractors where the quality of repair is deemed unsatisfactory.”

The council are also set to discuss demanding more money from the Government to tackle potholes across the county.

In the meantime it hoped to extend the use of a ‘dragon patcher’ which has been used across Oxfordshire since 2015.