Road crews must return to potholes if they do not fix them properly, Buckinghamshire Council’s deputy leader has said.

Steve Broadbent, who is also the cabinet member for transport, said the unitary authority had a ‘right first time’ approaching to mending defects on the county’s highways.

The councillor told a full council meeting on September 18: “If they are not up to standard then the contractors are due to go back and make a corrective repair before any money gets paid. And if it fails again, then they repair it at their own cost.”

Cllr Broadbent admitted that the council’s contractors sometimes had to do ‘temporary’ repairs, especially during bad weather.

But he added that road crews would come back to fix potholes ‘as soon as conditions allowed’ and as soon as they were able to.

He said: “It is really important that we inspect the repairs we are doing, which we do, and report them on the quality scores they grade repairs on.”

The cabinet member was responding to a question from Cllr Chris Poll, who asked what the council was doing to make sure that pothole repairs are permanent ‘first time around’, rather than just ‘filling holes with tarmac, which often lasts just a few weeks’.

This summer, the council completed its trial of a new roadmending adhesive, made, in part, from recycled rubber tyres.

Using the material to repair 134 defects during the trial saved 48 tonnes of carbon, compared to more traditional patching methods, the council said.