Buckinghamshire is the seventh worst county for pothole repairs, according to a study by a cycling charity.

Latest figures show that there are 2,850 potholes reported in the county, of which 349 – around 12 per cent – have been fixed.

The statistics have been compiled by We are Cycling UK, which encourage users to report potholes using the app ‘Fill That Hole’.

As of this week, there are 2489 open reports in Buckinghamshire, according to the government-backed website, placing them seventh in the list of 214 authorities.

Fill That Hole sends reports of the defective road surfaces to the relevant authorities which then notify it when a repair has been completed.

It stresses that some counties receive more reports from the public than others and authorities don’t always provide a notification when work is carried out on a pothole, meaning a pothole will remain as an open report on Fill That Hole.

A Transport for Buckinghamshire spokesman said: “Transport for Buckinghamshire investigates every pothole reported to them, and reacts on a risk based prioritisation process – put simply, that means the worst ones will be attended to first, as a matter of urgency.

“Where necessary, emergency or ‘make safe’ repairs are done within two hours to keep the road safe and there are teams on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make those repairs – safety is our top priority.

“Not every pothole reported to TfB will be repaired for a number of reasons. The defects may either not meet the criteria for repair or the affected road may be in the programme for longer term improvements.

“Historically we have not received sufficient funding to keep the roads in the condition we would want so, over recent years, we have been investing additional council money into road maintenance.

“Initially we have focused on improving the busiest roads and we are now looking at how we can use this money to address the condition of some of the rest of the road network.

“We will not be able to improve everything overnight but our monitoring of the overall network shows that condition is improving year on year.

“Reports made using other third party websites, such as ‘fillthathole’, will not receive updates on the progress of repair from the Highway Authority, and so ranking based on number of open reports is probably misleading.

“The most effective tool for reporting potholes is on the Buckinghamshire County Council website at http://www.transportforbucks.net/Report-it-pothole.aspx which will ensure the information reaches TfB to enable fast and efficient assessment of the problem.”