Contractors have fixed more than 4,000 pot holes on main roads in Essex since June.

New figures released by Essex County Council have revealed there are just 514 defects left to fix on priority one and two routes in the county.

In June there were 4,576 pot holes on the main roads, which include strategic routes and roads which link these with local streets.

Extra crews to tackle the backlog were put on by Essex Highways after County Hall provided an additional £17.5million in funding to address the issue.

Eddie Johnson, county counillor for highways maintenance and small schemes, said: “Reducing the number of potholes on our priority routes to just over 500 is great news for Essex motorists, and for all those visiting Essex for business or pleasure.

“It is the result of an ambitious programme of maintenance work that will continue beyond summer into the winter and beyond.

“We have been working extremely hard, and there will always be some because we can’t account for the weather, so we are continually fixing them.

But if we start the year with more than 4,000 and we get it down to 500 then we are getting there.

“We know the people of Essex deserve the best roads they can get.”

The extra crews will now be deployed fixing defects on the 700 worst local urban roads around the county by March 2015, work which Mr Johnson said would include other street scene repairs such as damaged kerbs and paving slabs.

Main roads do not include those managed by the Highways Agency, such as the A12 and A120.

Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell said this was good news, but more needed to be done.

He said: “I welcome any improvement, of course I do. But we have to ask how it go so bad in the first place.

“There is a long way to go and complaints are still coming in. I did a house call on Saturday with an elderly lady who fell in a pot hole outside her house which had been reported and it took er two weeks until she could go upstairs in her home.

“There is still a serious problem which I don’t think will be addressed until maintenance of highways is restored to Colchester Borough Council which it was for decades until Essex County Council took it away.”

Witham MP Priti Patel added: “Essex County Council, supported by millions of pounds of new money provided by the Government, should be congratulated for the action taken to repair roads and fix potholes. I am pleased that they are committed to carrying on with this work to improve our roads and make them safer.”