CALLS for more money to be spent on maintaining North Yorkshire's 6,000 miles of roads have been backed by the county council's highways department.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) says that nationally it would take 11 years to bring the country's roads up to scratch even if highway engineers were given all the money they need.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council's highways department said it had to carry out resurfacing work on a priority basis because of the volume of roads.

Despite having the highest amount of roadway in England, North Yorkshire County Council has been rated as one of the top ten authorities in the country for its standards of roads.

"But we would certainly welcome more funding to invest in maitnenance," added the spokesman.

Generally, he said, North Yorkshire's roads were regarded as being of an acceptable standard given the available resources.

Jim Crick, spokesman for the AIA, said "The current system of funding road maintenance in the country is failing everyone. Money promised from Westminster is not reaching the roads, but being siphoned off at a local authority level to pay for other services.

"Engineers are becoming increasingly frustrated with their plight and want guaranteed funding and greater understanding from councillors."

Mr Crick said the AIA's survey found that 80 per cent of local authority highway engineers in England believed that, to operate an efficient road maintenance programme, funds provided by central government to local authorities for road maintenance, should be ring-fenced.