COUNCIL chiefs have been blasted for taking too long to spend an extra £1million repairing potholes in the Blackburn with Darwen borough.

Last July town hall bosses announced that an extra £1m had been set aside to pay for potholes to be repaired between then and the end of the financial year.

But with just over a month of the financial year remaining, only half of that pot has been spent, with the other £500,000 set to be carried over to the next 12-month period.

Coun David Foster, leader of the borough’s Liberal Democrat Party, slammed the council for failing to honour its promise when there are so many roads in dire need of repair.

However, the local authority said the entire amount had not been spent because the approval to spend came later in the year than expected.

The £500,000 underspend was revealed in a report to the Council’s Executive.

Coun Foster said: “Is the Labour-run council so incompetent that it cannot find enough roads to spend the money on?

“I can give numerous roads in my ward that could do with the money.

“I am told that the money will be carried forward to the next financial year, but that is not good enough. Our roads are in a poor condition now and the council should have been able to spend the money when they promised or were they just giving us empty promises?”

In November it was revealed that the council had spent £477,100 of its maintenance allowance on resurfacing and patching work on major roads.

In addition, around £400,000 was provided by the Department for Transport to pay for further repairs.

At that time the council also allocated an extra £1million to be spent on fixing potholes on secondary routes.

Coun Dave Harling, executive member for regeneration, said: "The programmes drawn up for resurfacing include work for contractors and patching work for the in-house highways team. Initially it was hoped that the full £1m would be spent on those roads in the worst condition.

"However, due to the need to spend over £400,000 of additional Department for Transport highways funding and the council's formal approval to spend coming later in the year than expected, it was agreed that £500,000 of this committed programme of works will be delivered in the next financial year.

“In addition to Local Transport Plan funding for works on our main roads, the council will still be delivering a resurfacing programme of approximately £1million this year."