THE region’s potholed roads have been described as “absolutely shocking” and requiring almost £1bn to put right.

Despite the best efforts of North-East councils who filled in 145,870 potholes in the past 12 months, they would need to find an extra £0.99bn to bring road networks fully up to scratch.

The Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) study on behalf of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, which revealed the figure, said there were continuing concerns over a lack of resources and too much money was still being spent on patching holes rather on long-term maintenance.

Meanwhile separate analysis of Department for Transport (DfT) data by the BBC’s shared data unit found a handful of areas where the proportion of roads in ‘poor’ condition had increased since the turn of the current decade.

These included York and Hartlepool.

Recently, the RAC identified a concerning rise in drivers breaking down after hitting potholes, blamed largely on the impact of the so-called ‘Beast from the East’ and the snowy and icy conditions it brought to the UK.

A member of staff at Katem Logistics, based in Spennymoor, County Durham, described the pothole problem in the region as “absolutely shocking”.

He highlighted the A688 near Bowburn, as one blackspot, adding: “You can see how bad it is, it is appalling. You have drivers swerving all over the place.

“You do wonder where the money goes [for roads]. People coming to visit Durham, they must think it is like Beirut.”

A Hartlepool Borough Council spokesman said: “The council has an on-going commitment to maintaining and improving the condition of roads and footpaths across the borough through a rolling programme of works.

"A total of £9.7m has been spent on highways – which includes road and footpath maintenance – over the past five years and a further £2m has been allocated within the council’s recently-approved 2018/19 budget.

“However, successive years of under-funding and budget cuts from central Government mean that resources continue to be limited and inevitably this has an impact on the amount of work the council is able to carry out.

“Extreme winter weather conditions, such as those experienced recently, only add to the pressures we face by leading to increased numbers of potholes and other damage to road surfaces.

“Nevertheless, we continue to do the very best we can and, indeed, the BBC analysis confirms that in 2016/17 Hartlepool was performing better than the national average for the percentage of A, B and C roads deemed to be in a poor condition.”

Councillor Mike Smith, Stockton Borough Council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said treating weaknesses in road surfaces early was proving to be an “increasingly difficult challenge” because of large Government cuts to budgets.

He said: “Like any other authority, we expect the freezing winter temperatures to take their toll on the borough’s road network. But we will mitigate that as best we can by continuing with our proactive and carefully planned approach to maintaining our principal highways network.

“We follow up all reports [of potholes] with an inspection at the earliest opportunity and carry out a permanent fix when making repairs. Temporary repairs are only ever used in cases when an urgent fix is needed in the interests of public safety.”

The RAC motoring organisation said ringfencing 5p per litre from existing fuel duty revenue could provide £11.8bn over the next four years and would go a long way to fixing the roads.

A DfT spokesman said local councils were being provided with £296m through a pothole action fund, which was enough to fix just under six million potholes.

“This Government is taking the big decisions for Britain’s future and investing a record £23bn on our roads to improve journeys,” he said.