LEADING councillors in Northumberland have insisted they are listening to the public when it comes to the county’s potholes.

A difficult winter in terms of weather has left many of the county’s roads in dire need of repair. Northumberland County Council’s budget, which is set to be voted on next week, includes £36 million in funding to maintain the county’s roads.

Extra funding has also been set aside specifically for repairs to smaller U and C-class roads in rural areas.

Speaking at a meeting of the council’s cabinet on Tuesday (February 13), deputy leader Cllr Richard Wearmouth described the budget as a “roads and pavements” budget.

READ MORE: Millions of pounds added to pothole investment plan for county

He added: “This is a bread and butter budget because we’re putting so much into fixing the things that matter to our residents.”

Cllr John Riddle, the cabinet member with responsibility for highways, said: “I’m delighted that the cabinet will approve all this extra money for roads. We have 3,000 miles of roads and a lot of those are rural and U and C class.

“We’re very confident we will get on top and improve our roads once and for all with a much better standard of repairs.”

It comes after council leader Glen Sanderson pledged to win the “battle” against potholes at a meeting on Monday. Speaking at the cabinet meeting, Cllr Sanderson reiterated his determination.

He said: “All other county councils, particularly the rural ones, have suffered from the weather which has seen flooding on a scale never seen for years. We will get this sorted out, it’s very much a priority that we have.

“We have found this extra money that we will give to our frontline teams for repairs that are needed following the terrible weather that we have had. We just ask people to bear with us while we get over this weather, then we will have the conditions to do these repairs and make them properly, so that they will last for a long time to come.”