An additional £4.4m is now available to Essex County Council to tackle potholes.

The pot for highway holes was successfully secured after the authority bid for extra crater cash from the government’s £168m filling-in fund.

The council will add a further £5.6m from its own coffers in order to deploy 20 extra rut repair gangs across Essex.

The focus will be on the worst roads including dents near drain covers, cracked kerbs and potholed pavements.

Rodney Bass, Essex County Council cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: “This funding will make a difference.

“We know that highway defects are one of the biggest sources of dissatisfaction in the county.”

Cllr Bass said: “I must emphasise this will not fix the entire network of potholes across Essex.

“I trust the residents of Essex are beginning to notice an improvement in roads already and this latest news will ensure this continues.

“I apologise for any unforeseen disruption these road repairs cause.”

The council will be spending £1 million on white line painting after the crumbling carriageways have been repaired which is anticipated to be by the end of March 2015.