Recent weather blamed for dire state of roads in Aylesbury and Bucks as residents urged not to try DIY fixes

Buckinghamshire Council has urged people not to ‘do a Rod Stewart’ and try to fix potholes themselves, as it blamed the weather and heavy goods traffic for the rapidly deteriorating road surfaces in the county.

Cabinet member for transport Steven Broadbent said: “The prolonged period of very cold conditions experienced before Christmas was the coldest in the region since 2010.

"Continuous freezing conditions like these can cause serious problems with road surfaces, both in the surface layers, where freeze-thaw action causes potholes and cracks to widen but affects the integrity of the underlying structure of the road if the frost penetrates deep enough. This can cause sudden, fairly catastrophic failure in roads.

“This has then been followed by an extremely wet period, which also causes more rapid deterioration. This is exacerbated where road surfaces are already damaged, and especially through extensive use by HGVs, such as we are seeing in many parts of Buckinghamshire, most notably associated with construction works for HS2 and East West Rail.

"As such, we are experiencing increased numbers of potholes and other related defects on the network and can expect this upward trend to continue over the next few weeks at least.”

Mr Broadbent said that, due to prudent financial planning, ‘severe weather reserves’ exist to help fund the required priority repairs to deal with the issues we are currently seeing.

And where the damage can be attributed in whole or in part, to schemes such as HS2 or East West Rail, the council will negotiate payments to ensure Bucks residents’ are not footing the bill, he added.

Mr Broadbent said Transport for Bucks is working hard to assess and rectify defects as soon as possible, and where a defect is unsafe, repairs will be made as quickly as possible.

He urged people to report problems on the highway via Fix My Street, and added: We urge residents not to repair potholes themselves.

In March last year, the national press reported how 77-year-old singer Rod Stewart had taken to filling potholes in the road near his Essex home, as he couldn’t get his Ferrari through.