BURY Council has hit back at claims that the borough has the fourth worst roads in the country, with 35 per cent in need of repair.

A survey published in the Sunday Times ranked Bury's roads among the most pothole-ridden, with Oldham at the top.

But Mike Cannon, the borough engineer, said the results were not as bad as it first appeared.

He explained there were two methods of measuring the condition of roads. The first was deflectrograph which measures the actual strength of the carriageway by running a vehicle along and measuring the deflection.

The second measurement, Coarse Visual Inspection, looks at surface defects on 70 per cent or more of the inspected length, which can usually be remedied by simply resurfacing the carriageway.

Mr Cannon said: "Bury Council is constantly monitoring the state of its highways and has increased investment by £1.25m in 2003/2004 and recently completed a £1m scheme of extra improvements but which has yet to feature in survey results."

He said the Sunday Times story was based on the findings of deflectrograph.

He continued: On a like-for-like basis, our Coarse Visual Inspection result compares extremely favourably nationally.

"Although they are not comparable, the Government requests both figures and uses the worst one. In doing this, it is clearly misleading."

However, a resident of Haslam Hey Close, Ainsworth, who saw the Sunday Times list contacted the Bury Times to say he agreed with the rating.

He said: "The road around this area has been patched up so many times. But they patch up one hole, and the next month another one appears.

"It's bad having to drive over them, especially for cyclists. The holes fill with water and you can't see them.

"The problem has been the same for about two years. They need to resurface the road properly rather than do it piece-meal. It can't be cost effective."

To improve the situation, Bury Council has created a new Highway Network Services team, joining up two previously separate operational units to remove duplication and improve the quality of highways.