“We’ve got a huge problem” – that is what Bucks County Council’s transport chief had to say about the ongoing pothole crisis on our roads.

Amid an onslaught of criticism from drivers about the state of Bucks’ potholed roads this winter, Cllr Mark Shaw admitted the county council is struggling to cope with seemingly endless wet weather.

Bucks County Council (BCC) leader Cllr Martin Tett said that as a local resident, he “completely understands” why drivers are frustrated at having to dodge dozens of potholes – but added: “You can’t really fix sodden roads”.

At BCC’s last ever cabinet meeting this morning (Monday, March 9), he said: “I drive around a lot, I see the state of the roads, I experience it. People are saying ‘why aren’t you fixing it?’ – the reality is, you can’t really fix sodden roads, they are just full of water and it is not sensible to do that.

“Whatever you do won’t last and then we get more criticism about the quality of the work and so on.

“On Saturday I was out and I thought it was quite nice and we’d had a few days of good weather and I thought we could really blitz the roads – but then of course, it rained again quite heavily on Sunday. This is all just putting back when we can start repairing our roads.

“One of our local area managers said you go to these potholes and there is literally water coming out of the ground because the aquifers are so full now.

“The ground itself is just like a giant sponge, pushing the water up through the roads. It’s not just the surface water, we are actually getting pressure from water coming up from under the roads now.

“This is a national problem we are not immune to and I totally understand the frustration and sometimes anger from residents about this. As soon as the weather improves we will be out there trying to fix the roads.”

Cllr Shaw reassured drivers the council has a plan in place to help make Bucks’ roads safe again.

He said: “It has become quite apparent that we have had some of the worst weather in terms of rainfall in some cases for 253 years. This had a dramatic effect on the state of our roads.

“We realise we have got a huge problem and I’m pleased to let everyone know we have got a plan. We have got £15 million to spend on resurfacing; we have got £5 million to spend on plane and patch and we have just been awarded £1.2 million from the government as well as the £2 million we would usually spend on pothole repairs.

“We are waiting to get out there, for the conditions to improve but we are doing emergency potholes and getting those done as we should be doing to keep those roads as safe and secure as we possibly can.

“But the ground is so saturated it is proving to be very difficult for us to be accurate about when we will be out. We are due to have two more days of very heavy rain again this week which affect some of our plans.”