The government has given an extra 1.5 million for emergency road repairs to Surrey.

The money is Surrey's share of the 100 million that was promised nationally in the Budget to tackle damage to roads following the severe winter weather.

However Surrey County Council Leader Dr Andrew Povey has stated that regions in the South East should have received more of the money because the region's roads are much busier than the rest of the country.

“This is not a fair way of sharing out the money,” said Dr Povey. “This really is a case of papering over the cracks.”

The formula for sharing out the money was based on how many kilometres of road the local authorities look after rather than the amount of traffic..

Surrey's A road carry twice the national average traffic flow but per capita funding for transport is lower in the South East than in Wales.

Dr Povey has called for long-term investment from the government to upgrade the roads, to the point where in the future millions of pounds isn't needed each year repairing potholes.

It has been estimated by Dr Povey that Surrey needs at least 200 million to get its roads up to a standard where they do not suffer badly each year from freezing weather conditions.

The problem of damaged roads and potholes has been particularly bad this year following an extended cold winter.

The total cost of repairing Britain's road increased 12 per cent in 2009/10 bringing the cost to 9.5 billion.