ROAD maintenance funding has been given more favourably to Conservative boroughs than others, a councillor has claimed.

Lancashire County Cllr David Whipp, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the county council, claimed the Ribble Valley and Rossendale have been given more funding than Burnley, Hyndburn and Pendle due to their political alliances.

This comes as figures reveal the county council spent £1,424,460 on road maintenance from April to December last year.

A further £1,036,767 was spent in Rossendale, compared to £313,543 spent in Burnley, £468,477 in Pendle and £281,677 in Hyndburn.

The maintenance of roads includes resurfacing and pot hole repairs.

County Cllr Whipp, who represents Pendle Rural, said: "When the Conservatives were in power between 2009 to 2013 the areas with the most funding were conservative areas.

"Looking at this now I am sad to say it is happening again.

"It maybe the case there's a reasonable explanation, maybe they haven't reached Pendle and the other boroughs yet, but I'm yet to be told why.

"The roads are so bad, the pot holes in Pendle are so bad, so long, so deep that people are fearing for their lives, people are swerving around them.

"The conditions are absolutely atrocious.

"Leafy lanes of Ribble Valley see three times much spending than the urban areas than Pendle or Burnley.

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This comes as hundred's of pot holes were reported to the county council in the first two weeks of January, prompting councillors to demand improvements were made to the county's surfaces.

County Cllr Keith Iddon, lead member for highways and transport, said: "We allocate funding for road repairs according to their condition on a countywide basis rather than allocating a certain amount to each district.

"If we spend more or less on roads in one district than another in a particular year it is because they are in better or worse condition, and more or less in need of repair.

"We target funding on schemes that will have the greatest impact on improving Lancashire's roads as part of our transport asset management plan.

"This works by analysing data collected during road surveys to inform how we prioritise investment, and the system is working well across the county as the condition of our roads is gradually improving, with fewer defects being found in A, B and C roads.

"The wet and freezing weather we've experienced in the last few weeks has led to an increase in potholes recently, as is the case every winter, and our teams are working hard to repair them.

"As soon as the weather improves we'll be able to use a technique called velocity patching to make better repairs more quickly, and people will notice the difference this makes.

"However, our immediate priority is to keep our roads in a safe condition and respond as quickly as we can to repair the winter potholes."