Road repairs that left potholes and bumps behind them are still to be completed by contractors, a Wokingham Borough Council highways engineer has said.

Contractors employed by the council have been spraying roads around the borough with protective asphalt sealant designed to fill up cracks and stop new potholes from forming.

But in many cases the sealant was sprayed before already existing potholes were filled – leaving some residents to brand it a “botch job”.

Rik Weaver described the works on Reading Road in Winnersh as “the worst resurfacing job I’ve ever seen” in a post to the Wokingham Borough Residents Discussion group.

Nikki McGlynn added that the surface was “so bad I thought I had a flat tyre,” while Peter Humphreys said the work on Finchampstead Road was “surely the worst botch job in WBC history.”

Other residents were quick to point out that the work was only a preventative measure – and not a full repair.

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Now, council highways engineer Chris Easton has explained that patching repairs were delayed due to poor weather – and that contractors will be back to fill them in.

Mr Easton gave the explanation as he fielded questions from councillors at a meeting on Monday, September 4.

Councillor Pauline Jorgensen suggested that the council could have explained the nature of the works more clearly to residents. She said: “I think people are expecting the potholes to be fixed before it gets sprayed on rather than afterwards.”

Mr Easton replied that the decision to spray the roads before re-patching was a decision by the council team handling repairs and the contractors employed to carry it out.

He said: “Due to, I believe it was weather, the pre-patching works couldn’t take place.

“So it was agreed, because they had to close the whole section of road to do the preventative sealant, that they did the preventative sealant and they would come back to do the pre-patching work after and then they would come back and re-seal those patched areas.”

Mr Easton also provided graphs showing the percentages of roads needing repair were lower in Wokingham Borough than the averages for England and the south east.

He said: “While we do have potholes, we do have a relatively good network. Don’t get me wrong – by any stretch of the imagination it could be better. But I think every part of the country could be better in terms of its network.

“We will always get potholes, but we’re trying to prevent them as best as we possibly can.”