LANCASHIRE County Council's Labour leader has sparked a major new pothole row claiming the authority's failure to spend millions of pounds on repairs had left many of its roads looking like a 'war zone'.

Nelson East's Cllr Azhar Ali accused the county's Tory bosses of failing to spend more than £6million of its repairs budget for 2017/1018.

He claims county council officers identified an underspend for the year of up to £6.9million on the revenue budget when he questioned them.

County leader Geoff Driver said Cllr Ali had misunderstood the figures and was ignoring long-term capital spending on repairing road surfaces.

Cllr Ali said: “In their budget the Conservatives failed to identify any extra funding for potholes.

“They claimed they were to spend an extra £5 million on highways, yet we have now found out they have failed to spend over £6 million pound on repairing potholes in this current year.

“We need to know whether the extra money just a 'rehash' of the £6 million they failed to spend.

"Some of our roads and streets - especially in Hyndburn, Burnley and Pendle - look like a war zone."

Cllr Driver said: "There simply is no underspending of the highways repairs budget.

"We have only changed the way it is financed in order to help the council through the serious financial challenges it faces.

"Cllr Ali and the he Labour Group's comments demonstrates yet again that they do not understand local government finance which explains why they left the county council in such a mess"

The latest row follows disputes over the county council awarding £1.27million for repairs next year for Pendle's roads and claims Tory Ribble Valley receives three times the money than Labour-led Burnley and Hyndburn - or indeed Pendle.

County Liberal Democrat leader Cllr David Whipp said Conservative areas were seeing the highest road maintenance spending.

Cllr Mark Townsend, Labour leader of Burnley council, said: "The state of our roads is pathetic and Burnley needs at least the same funding as Pendle."

Padiham community activist Brendan Morris, who has been highlighting potholes with paint circles, said: "It is disgusting that Burnley's roads get so little money while Ribble Valley, and now even Pendle, get far more."

Cllr Driver said: "We allocate roads maintenance cash to borough's strictly on the basis of our officers' assessment of need. There is no political involvement at all."

Pendle Conservative group leader defending next year's £1.27million allocation for the borough, saying: "These thing come in stages and Burnley may get some more money in the next one."