Millions of pounds have been spent on resurfacing and repairing Shropshire’s roads in a bid to prevent potholes.

Shropshire Council said it had spent £1.8 million on “surface dressing” 360,000 square metres of road in a bid to prevent potholes appearing across the summer and into winter.

And the council carried out the last project of resurfacing as part of a £7 million project funded by the government on Tuesday.

Andy Wilde, the council’s highways programme manager, said he was delighted that the council had managed to pre-empt many projects with the work.

He said: “We have carried out a substantial project of surface dressing on our roads which will help prevent things like potholes forming in the roads and then causing trouble and expense once winter comes along.

“We have completed £1.8 million worth of work covering 360,000 sqm of work.

“We have a list of certain roads with green, amber and red status. This is all about looking at what roads could be falling into disrepair and then fixing them before they drop into the red category.

“We started out in the north of the county and have weaved our way like a train to the south and we are really pleased with the works.

“We have a new system now, called My Shropshire which allows people to report potholes or other road defects and they can pinpoint the exact location.

“We then have 20 pothole filling teams working on the roads constantly who are out and about fixing these.

“People say they never see them out there, well they are out there every day responding to requests.”

It also comes as the council confirmed this week’s resurfacing of the A41 at Bletchley, near Market Drayton, marked the end of a £7 million resurfacing package.

Ben Corfield, of WSP, part of the Shropshire Highways Alliance, said the scheme had seen 82km of roads in the county completely refurbished.

He said: “We were given £7 million government funding last year and we needed it finished by Tuesday this week.

“Thanks to the quick work of the council and the fantastic trust base we have with contractors we have managed to spend the money on upgrading out roads.

“We have been out constantly tackling roads and repairing them, completely resurfacing them.

“The funding has been a huge help to us and the way the contractors have worked with us has been a huge help.

“Every council received funding and there was a fight on for the best contractors and we managed to secure them.

“This will have a real impact on the road network and we are delighted it has taken place.”