COUNTY council bosses are preparing to take the unusual step of using £120m from its savings to invest in road improvements, including fixing potholes.

A report to the council’s cabinet next week admits that under-investment has resulted in a significant reduction in the quality of major and minor roads, as well as pavements, leading to an increase in damage to vehicles and personal injury claims.

As a result, council leaders are proposing to invest £120m out of £400m cash balances to fund a major new works programme.

As well as investing about £80m repairing roads and bridges, about £40m could be spend on buildings, including schools.

Cabinet member for environment Yvonne Constance said: “The roads are breaking up faster than we can repair them – we have to get ahead of that deterioration.

“This will be an investment to improve the state of the county’s roads so we don’t have to go back and repair the same potholes over and over again.”

The report to cabinet members warned it was anticipated that the number of potholes in the county would increase by 32,000 over the next five years.

Each year, on average, the council has about 35,000 potholes needing repair but Ms Constance said if the new funding was approved it would radically improve matters.

Council leaders are confident they can use funding from balances as they predict a £6m-a-year increase in council tax income as a result of expected growth in the number of new homes.

Transport bosses agreed in July to plough £10m into improving the county’s 2,800-mile road network and some work is already under way.

Routes benefitting from repairs and resurfacing include the A4074 at Sandford-on-Thames and Copenhagen Drive in Abingdon.

Ms Constance was unable to say which routes would benefit if the £120m programme is approved on Tuesday, starting from the 2019/2020 budget, as highways managers are still in the process of compiling the list.

She added: “These improvements will also help to get people out of cars and onto cycles because when cyclists run over a pothole they are much more exposed to physical injury.

“We all know that our roads, pavements and bridges need extra investment and this plan seeks to unlock the funding to allow that to happen.

“This new money will allow us to get ahead of the curve and make a real difference.”

The borrowing will be included in the council’s medium term financial plan, which runs until 2022/2023.