CALL TO ACTION: What is the Vale's worst pothole - and what's going on with our roads?

And this week we are appealing to YOU – our readers – to share your stories and pictures, in the hope that we can identify the worst pothole in the Vale, and speak to the powers-that-be about getting it fixed.

The problem with potholes is not just as cut and dry as a lack of enthusiasm for repairing them – Bucks County Council’s Transport for Buckinghamshire has a gargantuan task on its hands, balancing an already stretched budget with keeping up with these vital maintenance works.

Last year Bucks County Council became one of only two councils in the entire country to lose its grant from the government entirely – adding to its financial woes.

This means that often the council is forced to prioritise repairs to some roads and infrastructure, where in the past council tax payers should have been able to expect a speedy fix.

Transport for Bucks says that the road repair budget for 2018/2019 has increased from £10 million to £15 million.

A spokesman for the authority, said: “This will allow us to further improve the quality of the roads in Buckinghamshire.

“The programme continues the county council’s aim to invest in its highways asset and will be split across a number of different treatments, from resurfacing to surface-dressing.”

And this year the council says that it has allocated even more money to help ease the pressure, and keep our roads safer.

The spokesman added: “As an immediate response to the issues facing us we have allocated an additional £500k for spending in this year; moving into next year we will be working with members to ensure that resident priorities are taken into account when programming repairs.”

And that’s where we want to hear from you!

We would like our readers to get in touch and highlight those pesky potholes that just don’t seem to be going away any time soon.

We’d like to know how long the pothole has been there for, and why it makes you so angry.

Next week we’ll run a follow-up story, on the worst potholes in the Vale and pass on all the details to Transport For Bucks.

Sometimes it’s like  fighting a losing battle for the council, and bosses say that the cold weather has made the situation even worse.

The spokesman said: “The cold weather continues to be a challenge as it means that our roads continue to fail and our ability to repair them using hot material is limited.

“We are, where possible, undertaking permanent repairs using proprietary cold lay materials, however the sheer number of defects present does mean that we are struggling to reach some of our deadlines.

“Using the principles outlined in our Highway Inspection Policy we are focussing our efforts on repairing defects on busy main roads rather than culs-de-sac, this will ensure that the passage of traffic is as safe as we can make it.

“In addition, we are still incredibly busy dealing with ice and, over the last weekend, snow.

“We do use the same teams to repair our roads as well as to grit them; this does mean that the teams are stretched to the limit.

“Spirits in the depots remain high and the teams do continue to do their best to keep our roads safe.”

So what are you waiting for!

Please send us your pothole stories in an email with the subject heading  POTHOLE to: [email protected]

If you’d prefer to chat to a reporter over the phone you can give us a call on  01296 619718.

Or, if Twitter’s your thing send us a tweet using the hashtag  #heraldpotholewatch to  @misshoknews or  @bucks_herald  We can’t wait to hear from you!