LANCASHIRE County Council and Blackburn with Darwen borough have won a £130 million share of government cash to repair potholes and maintain roads over the next six years.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced that a record £625 million will be spent on improving local roads between 2015 and 2021 in the North West.

He said the investment amounts to £45 million a year, enough to fix around 800,000 potholes across the region.

Blackburn with Darwen borough will get £10,068,000 over the six-year period.

Lancashire County Council gets £120,445,000.

Both local authorities are in the middle of major multi-million road improvement programmes aimed at tackling potholes long term.

Lancashire county is responsible for roads in 12 boroughs including Hyndburn, Burnley, Ribble Valley, Pendle. Rossendale and Chorley.

Mr McLoughlin said: “Roads play a significant part in everyday life.

“Poorly maintained local roads, blighted by potholes, are a menace to all road users.

“It is vital we have good quality roads.

“The £625 million funding for the North West will put an end to short term fixes and will mean we have committed £10 billion between 2010 and 2021. “

Over £4.7 billion will be shared between 115 councils, while a further £575 million will be available through a new challenge fund to help repair and maintain local highway infrastructure such as junctions, bridges and street lighting.

Blackburn with Darwen borough environment boss Jim Smith said: “The council is investing more than £10 million in improving our roads and tackling potholes in the borough as part of a new maintenance regime.

“Additional funds awarded to the authority by central Government to help continue this vital work still fall short of the amount of investment we actually need to fully improve our network.”

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council, said: “The way the government funds transport has changed and next year’s budget can’t be directly compared with previous years’ budgets.

“In 2015/16 we’ll receive an additional £11.25m through the Local Growth Fund to pay for schemes including the maintenance of Centenary Way viaduct in Burnley and the new East Lancashire Strategic Cycle Network.

“A previous part of the transport grant has been reduced by around £6m to create the LGF, which is not guaranteed every year.

“However, as a result of the successful LGF bid and the increase in maintenance grant announced today, Overall Lancashire will receive around £10 million more in 2015/16. “