North Ayrshire Council has approved an additional £1m roads funding for this year to put right the damage caused by the worst winter in 20 years.

This means that £2.8m will be spent on the 1014 kilometres of road for which the Council is responsible.

The Executive was told by Tom Orr, Corporate Director, Property Services, that reducing spending on roads "leaves a greater proportion of the network open to further attack in future and effectively stores up problems for future years."

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The money will be spent as follows: micro surfacing 3.5 km, surface dressing 11 km, Carraigeway resurfacing/reconstruction 13.75km and Footway resurfacing/reconstruction 4.9km.

Councillor David O'Neill, Council Leader, said: "The weather conditions included rapid freeze/thaw cycles, which meant our salting and snow clearing teams had to revisit areas, sometimes on the same night, to keep our roads safe.

"Salt usage more than doubled and in general we have spent 80% more on winter emergencies."

Cllr O'Neill said it's now clear we have to spend more to restore our road network, an essential economic and social asset.

(GK/BMcc)