THURROCK’S roads chief said the Government hasn’t given the council enough to fix the borough’s pothole-riddled roads.

The Department for Transport announced last week that Thurrock would receive £250,000 - enough, it claimed - to fill 4,000 potholes.

It means the government had handed the council an extra £470,000 this year to bring roads here up to scratch after a wet winter.

But Andy Smith, the Labour cabinet member for transport, said: “While this extra £470,000 is useful and welcome, it is nowhere near enough to fix all our road-based problems.”

The council received an extra £211,468 in March’s “Weather Repair Fund”. Much of that was spent resurfacing roads in the east of the borough.

The A1014 Manorway was repaired in places, while St Margaret's Avenue estate, Mucking Wharf Road both in Stanford-le-Hope were resurfaced, as was the A1089 Ferry Road in Tilbury.

One of the requirements of this latest bout of funding means the council will need to publish a list of potholes it has filled.

Mr Smith added: “Back in February we had a cabinet report which explained an additional £40 million over five years was needed to make sure Thurrock’s roads were brought up to a condition where the minimum amount of maintenance in needed and overall £72 million was needed.

“Overall, it means the council will have received £1,612,000 in grant funding for roads this year.”

“The problem with simply filling potholes is that it is never-ending work. The pothole will almost certainly re-appear next year and quite probably before that.”

In total, the government is giving an extra £163million to councils across the UK to fill thousands of potholes.