The number of potholes reported in the county doubled last winter from the previous year with more than £5.5m spent in the past two and a half years.

Last winter 26,000 potholes were repaired by Oxfordshire County Council with the annual number increasing in the calendar year.

In 2022, there were 21,598 potholes reported across the county with 21,060 being fixed costing £2,013,821.

Across the following year, the number of reported potholes increased to 36,900. Out of this, only 185 were not repaired.

It cost £2,806,728 for the 36,715 potholes to be fixed in 2023.

This year, data shows that 14,105 have been reported to the county council up to April and that 13,244 have been already fixed with £963,911 spent.

If this figure is projected for the rest of the year, it would mean that 42,315 potholes would be expected to be reported to the council.

This would be a 14.7 per cent increase from last year and a 101 per cent increase from 2022.

Despite the expected increase in potholes being reported this year, the projected amount spent to fix them would stay roughly the same at £2,891,733.

Oxfordshire County Council attributed the increase in reported potholes as a result of weather conditions across the United Kingdom in recent years.

It added that the rise in potholes as a result of weather conditions is a national issue, and not one confined to Oxfordshire.

In the most recent winter, the Met Office provisionally recorded 445.8mm of rainfall in the UK, 129 per cent of the 1991-2020 average and the eighth-wettest winter.

An Oxfordshire County Council spokesperson said: “The number of potholes reported in the county last winter (2022-23) doubled in comparison to the previous year.

“Heavy rainfall followed by significant spells of freezing temperatures provided the perfect conditions for creating potholes.

“Weather conditions this winter (2023-24) were just as bad.

“Therefore preparations were made at an early stage to deal with the expected rise in highway defects as efficiently as possible.

“We tweaked our defect early warning system based upon the data from last year, allowing us to react quicker to the fast changing and challenging network conditions.

“The vast majority of potholes (97 per cent) are now cut square, joint sealed filled and compacted, to undertake a first-time permanent fix.

“In 2023-24, of the 26,000 potholes that were repaired, less than 1 per cent (227) were reported as having failed within three months.

“The amount spent on repairing potholes has increased from £2.13m in 2022-23 to £2.646m in 2023-24.”

Following the winter period, Oxfordshire County Council has begun a £7m programme aimed at preventing potholes on nearly 100 roads.

The county council and its contractor Milestone Infrastructure Ltd visited more than 50 towns and villages between April 8 and June 3 to carry out surface dressing work.

Around one million square metres of carriageway will be treated, making it the biggest programme of its kind undertaken in Oxfordshire for at least 20 years.