The work follows a winter which saw what the council describes as an “unprecedented” rise in pothole reports both nationally and in Oxfordshire, putting extra pressure on its 4,500km road network.

While it accepts reactive repairs are still essential, especially where defects pose an immediate danger, the council says its focus is shifting towards longer‑term, more cost‑effective maintenance.

The current programme includes an £8m surface dressing scheme expected to improve around 1m sqm of carriageway, with further projects planned later in the summer.

The council says it is using specialist repair teams, dragon patcher spray‑injection machines and bobcat patching equipment to tackle damaged sections and prepare roads for these treatments.

Potholes reported to the council around Bicester (Image: FixMyStreet)

Alongside that, work has already started on the council’s inlay resurfacing programme, which will run until October and see 33 roads repaired, covering more than 85,000sqm of carriageway.

This deeper resurfacing removes worn‑out layers of tarmac before laying a new surface, offering a more durable fix than patching individual potholes.

READ MORE: Oxfordshire potholes backlog runs into the thousands

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander (Image: Yui Mok/PA)

National funding pressures add another layer of scrutiny as English councils risk losing up to a third of their funding to fix potholes if they fail to demonstrate they are working effectively, under the Department for Transport’s April announcement.

Some £525 million of the £1.6 billion funding for local roads maintenance in the 2026/27 financial year will be held back unless authorities can prove they are spending the money appropriately.

READ MORE: Potholes cost Oxford taxi firm more than £240,000 a year

The renewed focus on Oxfordshire’s roads comes as Oxford firm 001 Taxis told the Oxford Mail it is spending more than £240,000 a year on wear‑and‑tear repairs blamed on potholes, saying the state of the roads is leaving its business “struggling”.

Since January, the county council has increased the number of pothole repair crews from seven to up to 25 in an attempt to cut the backlog.

It says it aims to repair potholes within two hours, 24 hours or 28 days depending on size, location and risk, but some 28‑day jobs have slipped because of the surge in reports.

In 2025/26, the council says it spent £69m on highways maintenance and repaired 37,000 potholes and carriageway defects, with the budget set to rise to £73m in 2026/27.

Over the same period, it received 4,095 claims for pothole‑related damage and settled about 25 per cent of them, paying out more than £275,000 in compensation.

The council says those figures relate to when claims were logged or settled, not necessarily when incidents took place.

With displays held across the UK throughout the year, the iconic Red Arrows display team have cemented itself into the country’s consciousness.

Thousands put their eyes to the sky to witness the red, white and blue smoke overhead when the red Hawk T1s fly over.

The Red Arrows will be flying over close to the Oxfordshire border with Northamptonshire on Saturday (June 6) due to their appearance at Silverstone Circuit for Gassed on Track.

READ MORE: Oxfordshire country pub to reopen this month after three years closed

At one point, the famous planes will fly over the village of Middleton Cheney, where Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and F1 star Christian Horner live.

The full flight schedule is:

1. 530958N 0003126W RAF WADDINGTON (EGXW) – 3.13pm
2. 531145N 0003914W VCY WHISBY – 3.15pm
3. 524930N 0005024W VCY GOADBY MARWOOD – 3.18pm
4. 521451N 0005828W NE OF HARPOLE – 3.24pm
5. 521332N 0011624W NE OF PRIORS MARSTON – 3.26pm
6. 520421N 0011719W W OF MIDDLETON CHENEY – 3.27pm
7. 520402N 0010959W N OF HALSE – 3.28pm
8. 520435N 0010016W VCY CHAPEL COPSE – 3.29pm
9. 520416N 0010012W VCY SILVERSTONE – 3.30pm
10. 520448N 0005029W VCY COSGROVE – 3.51pm
11. 521930N 0005322W VCY BRIXWORTH – 3.53pm
12. 524350N 0004554W N OF WHISSENDINE – 3.57pm
13. 524753N 0002832W NE OF SWINSTEAD – 3.59pm
14. 525616N 0002913W E OF OASBY – 4.01pm
15. 530213N 0003038W VCY RAF CRANWELL – 4.02pm
16. 531145N 0003914W VCY WHISBY – 4.03pm
17. 530958N 0003126W RAF WADDINGTON (EGXW) – 4.04pm

The TV cook and food writer was named as the replacement for outgoing judge and Cotswolds resident Dame Prue Leith in January.

Ms Lawson read Modern Languages at Oxford University’s Lady Margaret Hall, edited the student magazine Isis, later saving it from financial trouble, and graduated in 1979.

A portrait of the food writer was then hung in the very same Oxford college, installed in 2018, to inspire students.

READ MORE: Mary Berry talks turning 91 after finding ‘joy’ at retirement home

Then it was announced in February that Ms Lawson would join the Financial Times as a columnist, leading food and drink coverage.

In her monthly column, she uses cooking as a lens onto all facets of life and joins a line-up of FT Weekend food and drink columnists that includes Jay Rayner and Marina O’Loughlin.

Now, in the latest edition released today (Thursday, June 4), Ms Lawson has given some life advice to her readers.

Speaking on the dangers of pessimism and how her outlook has changed on this, when speaking about the arrival of summer, the 66-year-old spoke of her mood shift on the matter.

Ms Lawson admits that she is allergic to the sun and hates the heat, but still allows herself to be caught up in the “collective rush” of summer each year.

READ MORE: Jeremy Clarkson in tears as he’s forced to say ‘hard goodbye’

“It’s like an incantation of optimism, and I want to be an optimist,” she wrote.

“I’ve trained myself to be one. When I was young, I felt that pessimism and dread were safeguards against disillusionment and disappointment, but as I got older, I began to see my ‘every silver lining has a cloud’ approach for what it was: an anxious mask of puny bravado to conceal, even from myself, an underlying cowardice.

“Also, it doesn’t work. Disappointment is an occupational hazard of being alive, as I often — like Mary Poppins’s sour alter ego — reminded my children when they were growing up.

“You can’t avoid disappointment any more than you can avoid making mistakes: it’s how you deal with them that equips you for life.”