Roads in Oxfordshire will get a facelift with the Government promising more than £16m during the next two years.

Spending on county roads £5.8m this year will be increased to £8m in each of the next two years.

The most noticeable changes will be on secondary roads, bridges and lanes.

Richard Dix, assistant director of highway management at the county council, welcomed the £2.2m increase on last year.

He said: "The big change will be that we can spend this money on the secondary road network and that is where most of our problems are.

"It is a welcome start to tackling what is a very big problem. We have a very large backlog of work that needs doing."

He said 22 routes in the county were in very poor condition and had been labelled 'failed roads'.

Mr Dix said: "We will be dealing with these over time.

"It will mean more road works but that is a good thing we will try and do it with the minimum of inconvenience to people.

"There will be the same amount of work on main roads and an increase on the amount of work on secondary roads but they carry less traffic anyway, so there should be less disruption."

Officers will now be deciding how best to spend this money and be reporting to the committee in December and again in February with more details.

Transport Minister Keith Hill said: "This is very good news for all road users. In our ten-year plan for transport, we pledged to rectify the backlogs in repairing carriageways, footways, bridges and street lighting. These extra resources will enable us to set to work on delivering those promises."