Redcar and Cleveland Council has removed an additional budget being used to repair private, unadopted roads due to the impact of their condition on local residents.

Councillor Cliff Foggo, the local authority’s cabinet member for highways and transport, confirmed the extra spending, funded through borrowing, had been stopped due to other service priorities. He had been asked by Councillor Mike Lockwood, who represents the Kirkleatham ward, what the council’s policy was on maintenance of unadopted roads in the borough, reports Teeside Live.

Cllr Foggo said: “The council is responsible for maintaining the roads, footpaths and associated infrastructure within the borough, which is defined as the adopted highway, which is maintainable at the public expense. The council is also responsible for the maintenance of walls, paths and council parks, open spaces and cemeteries, which are assets that need maintenance.

“There are other roads within the borough that are not owned by the council and are defined as private roads. There may be occasions when it is difficult to determine the ownership of some of these roads with the added complication that they may not be constructed to a standard that would enable them to be adopted by the council.

“For a short period of time a budget had been allocated to carry out repairs to private, unadopted roads due to the impact on local communities, however this has now stopped due to other service priorities.”

Cllr Foggo said capital spending on highways was made up of two grant allocations from the Government with the council adding its own resources from prudential borrowing.

He said: “It was this additional council resource that was targeting work on wider road infrastructure to resolve some sub-standard neighbourhood estates, but only to an acceptable level and not the more expensive adopted road standard. This was identified as one of the council’s priorities in improving the physical appearance of the borough.”