Oxfordshire criticised over pothole backlog as winter repairs continue
Councillors say funding issues and utility works have worsened road conditions
Last updated 4th Feb 2026
Fresh criticism has been raised over the state of potholes in Oxfordshire this winter, with one councillor claiming they had overtaken the congestion charge as the main issue for residents.
The recent cold snap has led to a rise in reports of potholes, with Oxfordshire County Council increasing its repair crews to help reduce the backlog.
In January, 35 per cent of repairs to larger potholes – which the council aim to complete in 28 days – missed the deadline by a few days.
The county council said this was due to the increase in reports, and that crews had faced many larger potholes.
Labour councillor James Fry, who is the shadow cabinet member for transport management, said: “Right now, potholes have overtaken congestion charging as the main issue raised by local residents, especially cyclists.
“It is no surprise that there is great annoyance over the time taken to repair some of the potholes on busy routes.
“The complaints extend beyond potholes as defined by the county, which are holes of over 4 cm depth.
“Long sections of broken road surfaces and shallow trenches surrounded by gravel after it rains are just as annoying.”
He added that many of the problems with road surfaces were down to utility companies and their contractors failing to resurface the road properly after finishing utility works, and the county council should do more to combat this.
“It would not take many examples of action to enforce contractual requirements for the contractors to realise that they will be out of pocket if they fail to give road users back a surface in the proper condition.”
The Government have provided Oxfordshire with a record funding of £167.9 million up to 2030 to fix the county’s potholes.
Councillor Liam Walker, leader of the Conservative opposition group, said: “Extra funding is always welcome, but money alone won’t fix Oxfordshire’s potholes if repairs simply keep failing.
“Residents are rightly frustrated when one pothole is fixed but another just feet away is left because it ‘isn’t on the worksheet’.
“That looks disorganised and shows there isn’t a clear plan in place to better coordinate repairs.
“We cannot accept backlogs building up during peak months or poor contract management that leaves too few crews out on the roads.
“Contractors must get repairs right the first time as the fiasco of this winter with a 35 per cent backlog for repairs was completely unacceptable and someone should be fired in my view for this utter incompetence.”
The county was also ranked ‘amber’ for its pothole performance – which is based on road conditions and how it spends money from the Government – in the Department for Transport’s traffic light system.
MPs Anneliese Dodds, Sean Woodwock and leader of the county council’s Labour group Liz Brighouse, wrote to Lib Dem transport chief Andrew Gant expressing their disappointment about Oxfordshire’s rating.
But Lib Dem cabinet member for transport management Andrew Gant argued the real cause of the issue was the lack of funding for local government, in his response to the MPs’ letter.
Fellow Lib Dem councillor Tim Bearder added: “I think to fully understand the pothole problem you have to look at the wider crisis of funding the council is currently facing.
“The Government is planning to cut funding to Oxfordshire County Council by £24.1 million over the next three years.
“That’s equivalent to the cost of running the entire Library Service across the county or the entire expenditure of the Vale of White Horse District Council for one year.
“The potholes are bad, not because of any neglect on behalf of successive councils, but because for decades national governments have systematically underfunded local government forcing us to make impossible choices between roads and social care or libraries or children’s centres.”
Mr Fry added: “Given the large backlog of road repairs, including dealing with potholes, there is no way in which any realistic level of added investment will be sufficient to resolve the problem quickly.
“The issue is how the money is spent most effectively.
“I know that the contractor has been asked to increase the intensity of its work on pothole repairs but I would like to be assured that they are no longer doing short term fixes, which will have to be repeated soon.
“Anecdotal evidence is that, in the medium term, quicker and cheap patching is a false economy.
“Therefore priority should be given to lasting repairs, even if this means that fewer potholes can be repaired in a short period.”
The county council previously said that 97 per cent of Oxfordshire’s pothole repairs are now cut square, joint sealed filled and compacted, to undertake a permanent fix first time.
They added: “While reactive highway work is vital, particularly for potholes that cause an immediate danger, the council’s emphasis is on maintenance work to prevent potholes forming in the first place, which is much more cost-effective than repairing them afterwards.”
More than 41,000 highways defects were reported to the county council in the last 12 months, around 90 per cent of which were potholes.
It has also invested nearly £14.5 million since 2024 on its largest surface dressing programmes for at least 20 years, treating around two million square metres of carriageway.