Motorists face a series of delays as council chiefs race against time to carry out an intensive programme of pot hole repairs totalling nearly �7m on 30 roads across Norfolk.

The government allocated �6.9m for winter damage repairs to county roads in Norfolk.

But ministers have insisted that the cash must be spent by the end of September and that means that the roadworks could be set to start straight away to get the repairs carried out in time.

The cold weather once again caused huge problems to the county's road network and, since the grant announcement on March 24, the county council has been working with its Norfolk strategic partnership partners, May Gurney and Mott MacDonald, to build up a programme that makes best possible use of all the available grant.

The council will be spend �3.9m on asphalt resurfacing, �2m on surface dressing (bitumen and chippings) and �1m on surface patching, with more than 30 surfacing schemes being funded from the winter damage grant.

In South Norfolk, �364,000 will be spent on repairs and �419,000 in Breckland.

It will include work on the A1066 at Garboldisham, Kenninghall Road, Banham, Roydon Road, Diss, London Road, Harleston, Francis Road, Long Stratton, and Cock Street, Wymondham.

Graham Plant, cabinet member for travel and transport, said the extra government funding was welcome, but it had taken a huge amount of work to identify priorities for repair and produce a programme that could be carried out to such a tight timetable.

And he conceded that the extra roadworks may not be popular with some motorists.

'We have to complete winter repair work by the end of September, and unfortunately this means that motorists will have to put up with major schemes going ahead right through the summer,' he added.

'I know how frustrating that can be, and I hope that road users will understand how important it is that roads are repaired before next winter, or we could face more extensive repairs and bigger bills if they have to go through another big freeze.'

Nigel Dyer, May Gurney's strategic director for the Norfolk Strategic Partnership (NSP) said: 'This additional funding is welcome, but it does present a number of operational challenges.

'It is testimony to the strength of the partnership that we have been able to work closely with Norfolk County Council and our supply chain partners to develop a programme that will enable us to deliver the work by the September deadline'