A CASH-strapped council has announced a major increase in roads investment – but the move was instantly dismissed as "smoke and mirrors" by the Lib Dems.

Despite having to cut £270 million from its pre-austerity budget, Labour-led Durham County Council is increasing its roads maintenance spending to £7.6 million by 2018, up from just £700,000 in 2011.

At the same time, the North-East’s biggest council has raised its winter maintenance budget by £1.5 million a year since 2014, as well as spending £1.5 million on new salt barns at Wolsingham and Hackworth, £1 million on refurbishing its depots at Tindale and Wolsingham and drawing on reserves to repair flood damage.

But Liberal Democrat Mark Wilkes dismissed the Transport Assessment Management Report (Tamp), which will go before the Labour cabinet next week, as a smoke and mirrors cover-up.

“This Labour council has over £200 million in reserves and a backlog on road and footpath repairs of over £180 million,” he said.

“Every year we try to get them to increase the repair budget and every year they refuse. Just a small extra investment each year would have reduced the need for so many repeated pothole and footway repairs.

“We seem to get further and further behind, with no sustainable plan.”

The council, which maintains 2,348 miles of road and 486 road bridges, says the backlog is broadly in line with other authorities and Durham is one of just two English highways authorities to achieve the top efficiency rating.

Councillor Brian Stephens, the cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships, said: “Despite unprecedented reductions in government funding since 2010, we have protected and continued to prioritise investment in maintaining our roads.

“We are committed to investing in the county’s highways network and keeping it up to standard and we are continuing to pursue other opportunities to increase our funding further still.

“The latest Tamp demonstrates that the backlog is stable and work is progressing well in helping maximise the condition of our roads with the budget we have.”

Durham received £14.2 million support from the Department for Transport in 2014-15 and will get £800,000 from the Pothole Action Fund for 2016-17.

A recent industry survey found it would cost £553 million to repair all the North-East’s uneven and potholed roads.

Durham County Council’s cabinet will meet at Spennymoor council offices on Wednesday (April 6) at 10am.