THE leader of the county council compared solving the problems of potholes on our roads to bringing peace to the Middle East, at a recent meeting.

Martin Tett, leader of Bucks County Council, spoke at the council's AGM and debate last Thursday, in response to Twitter questions from members of the public.

He said people often ask him why the council has not fixed every pothole in the county.

Cllr Tett said: "It is a bit like trying to bring peace to the Middle East, I guess.

"The reality is the residents' expectations are quite reasonable. Why shouldn't we have every road in the county being really good? I can understand that.

"The reality is the cost of doing that is astronomic."

Cllr Tett said there is a big deficit in the amount of money needed to fix the roads in the county.

In the last year, he said, 17,000 potholes have been repaired and in the last three years the county has spent £50m on resurfacing road.

He said: "The real solution is not to fix the potholes. The real solution is to actually resurface these roads."

Over the next four years the county will spend a minimum of £60m on resurfacing roads, but this will only account for a proportion of the roads.

Cllr Tett said what is really needed is a substantial amount of money from central Government.

Later on in the meeting Cllr Tett emphasised the problem the council face, in terms of the public not realising all the work the council does.

He said: "The reality is that most residents judge us rightly or wrongly by two keys things... firstly is what do the roads look like?

"You know, can they drive without potholes? That is a key touchstone. If we do well on that they thinking we do well everywhere.

"If you do badly on that they think you run a rubbish show everywhere. So the roads are important.

"Secondly in terms of children's services and many of those things behind the scenes- they don't care, quite frankly.

"That is the really sad thing about it. What already eats up 60 per cent of our budget and is giving us all the pain are things the vast majority of our residents really don't have much visibility of."

He said improving the roads is a challenge for the county council but one they will strive to continue doing.