The leader of the county council has warned it will take a “long time” to resurface all roads across Bucks, as a major pothole repair scheme continues.

Councillor Martin Tett said residents should already see an improvement in the condition of the county’s roads as Transport for Bucks teams carry out major patching work over the summer.

However Cllr Tett added it may be some time before all roads are “back to a reasonable condition”, after severe winter weather added to the already rising number of potholes.

Addressing a meeting of the cabinet this morning, the leader said: “At full council we passed a resolution to have money from general fund reserves passed as allocation for the plane and patch programme to recover from the winter damage done to our roads.

“In my own area, Nightingales Lane, in Chalfont St Giles, has just been done and it makes a really big difference when you get a big patch of plane and patch done, and it’s looking a lot better.

“Hopefully residents around the county will be beginning to see some improvement. Obviously it is going to take a long time to get all of the roads back to a reasonable condition.”

In April BCC agreed to release £1.2 million from reserves to fund immediate pothole repairs – bringing the total road improvement fund up to £10 million.

Cabinet member for transport, Mark Shaw, added: “We have been blessed so far this spring and early summer with good weather which has allowed us to be out the road network and repair the damage that has been done over the winter, which was dreadful throughout the whole country, not just this county.”