Questions have been raised over whether the council will be able to fix all potholes across the county before winter – as the rate of repairs in June plummeted.

Figures release by Bucks County Council (BCC) show highways teams failed to hit the two-day target for carrying out repairs on severely damaged roads.

Last month just 40.9 per cent of “category one” – or the most serious – potholes were repaired within two days, while 71.3 per cent were addressed in five days.

Speaking at a meeting of BCC’s transport select committee this morning (July 17) councillor Roger Reed asked for reassurance there are enough staff to tackle the backlog of road repairs before the summer ends.

He said: “I would just like some comfort that we do have the resilience and our staffing levels are about right, because if not, and there is a backlog due to bad weather over the winter, we will never ever going to get rid of it.”

Potholes have been a hot-topic of discussion for frustrated residents and politicians after harsh winter weather destroyed the county’s already dilapidated roads.

In March the county was treated to its first glimpse of summer – prompting Transport for Bucks teams to start the long-anticipated work on road repairs.

Speaking at this morning’s meeting, cabinet member for transport, Mark Shaw, said he was “disappointed” over the declining numbers, however assured members the repair rate is “rapidly improving”.

He said: “Summer months are difficult because people are away on holiday. Equally winter months when people are taken down ill, you will see if you look at the sickness figures, we have quite a hike off staff off during the flu epidemic.

“I can assure you we have robustly hit the pothole problem, we are cracking away at them.

“Yes, I am very naturally disappointed to see that figure, compared to where it was, but it is rapidly improving.

“We are out ding the resurfacing, we are out doing the plane and patching.”

Simon Dando, from Transport for Bucks, added work has to be spread out over a longer period of time in order to reduce the impact on roads and increase the teams’ productivity.

He added: “We had to balance the productivity of the crews in relation to the risk to the network.

“So I could fix 200 hundred potholes in two days, in fact we fixed 1,400 potholes in three days.

“Those are the balancing matters we have to reach in relation to making sure the crews are productive as possible.”