THE top priority of people on where Wiltshire Council should spend its money was on maintaining the roads.

In a household survey undertaken by the council, 65.2 per cent of the 930 people who took part supported investing money into road maintenance, followed by adult social care services for older people (40.4 per cent) and third was services for vulnerable children and families (33.7 per cent).

As a result the Cabinet at Wiltshire Council is proposing to put in an extra £2.7 million to the road maintenance budget including fixing pot holes bringing the total budget to £21.3m in 2013/14.

This year has been one of the worst for pot holes following the cold weather and Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott defended the council’s response to repairing them and rebutted criticism that some of the repaired pot holes look “tatty.”

She said: “You cannot fill a pot hole permanently in this weather. You will be throwing away money.

“When it’s cold, wet and freezing the Tarmac doesn’t stick.

“We fill in those that are dangerous in half a day with a temporary filling and we get round in the Spring when the weather gets better and fill them permanently.”

In Wiltshire Council’s £340 million proposed budget for 2013/14 an extra £5.6m is planned for older people and adult social care, an additional £2.9m on services for vulnerable children and families and an extra £300,000 is allocated for flood alleviation schemes.