TRANSPORT chiefs at Herefordshire Council say they are £100m behind on the amount of money they need to spend to fix the county’s roads.

Infrastructure and transport cabinet member John Harrington says it is a historic problem which is only likely to get worse.

He is calling on central government to improve funding for local authorities.

The council has been struggling with the reduction in funding since 2010, he said.

“The last time we had an estimation we were about £100m behind in the maintenance of our road network,” he said.

“This is a historic problem. We are struggling with the reduction of 60p in every pound in funding to local government since 2010.

“This is what’s going to happen and all we are doing with the money we’ve got is try to manage it in the best way possible.

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“And there are a few efficiencies to be made around that.

“But it comes back to the question that our MPs need to represent us and not vote for further reductions in funding and fight for an increase in funding and fairer funding.

“Not just for the maintenance of our infrastructure but for social care and everything else.”

Coun Harrington called on residents to write to their MPs to put pressure on colleagues for better funding for local government.

Coun Alan Seldon said the county’s MPs “really do need to start answering questions about why our roads are in such a state, why statutory bodies don’t engage with us over the planning issues”.