More than £10m has been cut from Cumbria’s funding to repair damaged roads and potholes.

The Government has slashed a total of £10.5m in funding to the council – a reduction of almost a quarter.

The County Councils Network says the reduction in funding across England means councils will have no choice but to cancel planned road maintenance projects.

Cumbria County Council will receive £33.8m to maintain roads in 2021-22, the Department for Transport has announced. That is £10.5m less than the £44.3m provided in the current financial year – a reduction of 24 per cent.

The council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, Councillor Keith Little, described the news as 'frustrating.'

He said: “It’s infuriating. We all appreciate the financial situation the Government finds itself in, but we have a £350m deficit on our highways, and it’s getting worse due to the extreme cold weather we’ve been having.

“This reduction is not going to be helpful this year.

"We’re getting hundreds of reports of potholes.

“We had already set our capital programme and gone out to local committees. We will have to go back to them now.”

Cumbria has a highway network of more than 4,700 miles – and the recent cold weather has meant potholes have become a huge problem.

However, there is no money for the council to replace the lost funding with.

Cllr Little added: “Potholes are the biggest complaint we get from the public, and then we have to deal with vehicles getting damaged and people's compensation.

“We try to keep on top of it where we can.

“The money can’t be covered, but what we will do is continue to work with and lobby Government for more funding. That’s all we can do at the moment.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “We know high-quality local roads make a difference to people’s lives, which is why we have committed £1.125bn to local roads maintenances for 2021-22, including £500m from the Potholes Fund which will allow the equivalent of 10 million potholes to be rectified by local councils.”