Transport Secretary's car towed after hitting pothole in Oxfordshire
£34 million allocated to tackle Oxfordshire's potholes this year
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander's vehicle was towed after encountering a pothole on the B4437 near Burford, Oxfordshire.
Heidi Alexander was returning to her Swindon South constituency from a Labour fundraising event when the incident occurred last month.
Drawing a humorous parallel, Alexander told The Sun, "I joked to my husband that I thought that the astronauts on Artemis II might have seen a similar-size crater when they were slingshotting around the Moon last week."
Images captured her green Mini Cooper being loaded onto an AA recovery truck following the mishap.
This event highlights the ongoing issue of potholes in Oxfordshire, where £34 million has been designated this year to address road maintenance.
A recent estimation placed the cost of restoring pothole-riddled local roads in England and Wales at a record £18.6 billion.
Moreover, English councils face the potential loss of up to one-third of their pothole repair funding if they fail to demonstrate effective usage, according to a Department for Transport announcement this week.
A considerable £525 million from the £1.6 billion allocated for local roads maintenance in the 2026/27 financial year will be withheld unless the authorities prove efficient use of these resources.