Liberal Democrat councillors in Newcastle have called for more investment to tackle potholes and damaged roads which they have said present ‘serious’ health risk to the elderly, disabled and cyclists.

But a call for the local authority to put in motion a five-year investment project to address the crisis was voted down by Labour councillors at a Newcastle City Council meeting, with the ruling party instead urging the Government to pay for the mountain of maintenance work.

Lib Dem Wendy Taylor warned that Labour was “living in cloud cuckoo land” if it believed that the Conservative Government, or even a future Labour one, would stump up the cash needed, according to a report by the Chronicle Live.

According to the Dene and South Gosforth councillor said: “I know we will not get this money from the Government and the roads will continue to get worse and worse if we don’t do something about it.

“The way the council repairs potholes at the moment is a complete waste of money, they break down within months – if you don’t believe me then come and look at the streets where I live, they are in a shocking state with partly-repaired potholes and new potholes next to them.”

She added that it was “ludicrous” to think that addressing the backlog would bankrupt the council as other local authorities, such as Stockport, had successfully made similar investments.

According to latest figures, it would cost £75m to repair every road in the city in need of maintenance and another £109m for footpaths.