A pothole-ridden roundabout has been singled out as “one of the worst” examples of potholes in Basildon and Billericay’s roads.

The area’s new Tory MP Richard Holden was joined by Essex County Tory councillor Jeff Henry and senior officers at Essex County Council in a visit to the Bedford Roundabout.

The visit comes as the county council announced a £25 million funding boost to allow the power resurfacing of key roads, ensure roadside vegetation is kept in check and signs and lines are repaired and repainted.

Mr Holden said: “The road surfaces in too many parts of Basildon and Billericay are completely unacceptable.

“One of the worst examples is in Laindon on the roundabout between the community centre and the Laindon Centre.

“I was glad to be able to meet county councillor Jeff Henry down there in the last few days with senior council officers from Essex County Council.”

Mr Holden added he wanted “to really ram home to them how important it is to get immediate repairs sorted and a long-term fix to the concrete road in place.”

Councillor Henry praised the director of Essex Highways as “fantastic” and has said that proactive steps are being taken as “residents expect better”.

He said: “The biggest issues faced by highways is that councils are woefully underfunded, not just by any one government, it is historic.

“There is no ringfenced infrastructure investment, we need investment into our highways, and it must be ringfenced.

“With this particular roundabout, we had the funding secured for this financial year to be done after Christmas into March time next year, we have brought that forward to December and in the meantime we won’t leave it.

“We will have it machine patched to tide it over, so it is a better experience. Just two patched were done on the roundabout and in the space of 18 months, the rest of the road has just come apart.”

A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: “We maintain over 5,000 miles of roads, one of the largest road networks in the country.

In order to maximise our limited resources, we have to fix the most urgent issues first. However, every defect reported to us is assessed by an inspector and prioritised.

“In the 2023/24 financial year we fixed 1,654 potholes in Basildon, and so far we have fixed 481 since April this year.

“We would like the government to give us access to the road tax paid by Essex residents to enable us to fix potholes quicker.”