HAMPSHIRE’S transport chief has slammed government funding following the news that more than 170 miles of the region’s road network was in need of repair last year.

The new figures also showed that nearly a tenth of Southampton’s A-roads roads have been in need of repair over the past eight years.

Hampshire county councillor Rob Humby, executive member for environment and transport, said: “Lack of government funding, together with pressures on social care, mean that local councils are having to make hard choices with reduced resources for highways maintenance. We have invested an extra £10million each year in our Operation Resilience programme which is proving effective in reducing the rate of decline in our roads.

“The recent cold weather has damaged the roads further and without additional Government funding, it is simply not possible to deliver overall improvements in the roads from year to year. The Government provides around £1.1million per mile for Highways England’s road maintenance of motorways and major trunk roads, yet just £21,600 per mile for local councils’ road maintenance.

“This is why we are supporting calls on the government from motoring organisations and the LGA to reinvest some of the £40bn it receives in motoring taxes each year back into local roads.”

As previously reported, the figure, released as part of the BBC Shared Data Unit’s research into the state of the countries road network, show that on average 9.3 per cent of Southampton’s A-roads, managed by the city council, were in need of maintenance between 2009 and 2017.

Nationally, Southampton City Council (SCC) was among the top 20 local authorities for percentage of A-roads in need of repair, with the City of London authority having the worst average of 15.3 per cent.

With B and C-roads, Southampton faired better, ranking 49th in England with an average of 8.1 per cent.

But the data did show that the city’s A-roads improved significantly between 2016 and 2017, with the amount needing repair falling from 10 to 3 per cent.

Meanwhile, Hampshire County Council outperformed the city council most years, only falling behind in 2009/10 when 11 per cent its B-roads were in need of maintenance, compared to 7 per cent in Southampton.

On average, 5 per cent of Hampshire’s A-roads and 7.3 per cent of its B/C-roads needed maintenance over the eight-year period.