Swindon Borough Council workers repaired nearly 1,000 potholes in one month as part of a £1 million investment in resurfacing Swindon’s roads.

The local authority revealed the latest figures about after the government announced extra funding for local authorities to spend on road maintenance.

The Local Government Association estimates that it would take councils in England £14 billion - and more than a decade - to clear the current roads repair backlog.

A council spokesperson said: “In an ideal world, we’d have the money needed to keep potholes at bay, by resurfacing and upgrading roads as they wear out.

“The council is due to spend £1.086 million in 2023-24 on resurfacing roads on a priority basis, but could easily spend around 100 times more than that to meet local need.

“Reactive pothole repairs can be regarded as a ‘sticking plaster’ but they’re essential to deal with road defects in the here and now that would otherwise pose a risk to road users.”

In October, the repairs team fixed 964 potholes around the town, 747 of which were done within five days of being reported.

Five highways inspectors identified 929 of the defects while they carried out regular checks of 522 miles of road, 646 miles of footpaths and pavements, and 76 miles of cycling routes.

Residents reported 86 bumps and dips that they thought needed repairing, and 35 of these qualified for a fix-up.

The council spokesperson added: “As our budget is limited, we risk assess and prioritise repairs as follows.

“For a pothole to be considered a safety defect, it must be at least 40mm deep in the road surface potholes that pose a very high level of safety risk are completed within 24 hours.

“We aim to complete all other pothole repairs within 10 working days, with the majority completed within five working days.

“Other defects may be programmed for a longer period of repair of up to six weeks.

“For defects less than 40mm deep, a risk assessment is made in line with our Carriageway and Footway Defects Management Plan to determine if the defect is a hazard and if a repair is necessary.”

For more information visit the website www.swindon.gov.uk The Prime Minister announced this week that £8.3 billion of funding that was earmarked for part of the HS2 railway scheme will instead be given to councils in England to repair potholes over the next 11 years.

In England, the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humber will receive £3.3bn, with £2.2bn going to the West and East Midlands, and £2.8bn to the East, South East, South West and London.