A £357,000 drop in roads maintenance spending over the past year in Swindon has been attacked.

Swindon's budget for fixing potholes and patching damaged road surfaces in 2015/16 was £794,500.

A further £500,000 was allocated during the year to tackle work that had gathered in a backlog and the total amount spent by Swindon Borough Council was £1.29m.

Overall spending in this financial year is likely to be somewhat less at £937,000.

The core budget amount allocated fell by slightly over £20,000 to £774,100 and only £163,000, from a Government pothole fund, was added during the year.

Like most local authorities, Swindon Borough Council is facing an ever-increasing set of financial challenges as it moves towards needing to be self-sufficient by 2020.

The administration argues that some reductions in spending are an unavoidable consequence of the extensive cost-cutting required.

But a Labour councillor has accused them of failing to acknowledge the strength of feeling among residents whose roads have been in a damaged state for some time and show no signs of imminent repair.

Coun Matthew Courtliff (Lab, Lydiard and Freshbrook) says the continued cutbacks to road maintenance has had a material impact on his ward and that despite the council’s financial challenges, spending on roads was a high priority for his residents.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that this council continues to neglect our roads,” he said.

“Residents feel road maintenance is one of the most basic duties the council should carry out, I have continuously campaigned for roads that are fit purpose.

“While I am disappointed by the news of council cutbacks to road maintenance, I am not at all surprised.

“Since I’ve been elected as a councillor I have had residents from all sides of my ward ask me if the council could repair the poor condition of their road but this year just one road has been resurfaced.

“One of my elderly residents is even too frightened to leave their home after a kerb gave way and collapsed under their foot. That’s the state some our roads are in now with little council investment to put them right.”

“It’s yet another sign of this council failing both its duties and its residents, and it shows that a change of administration is needed to take Swindon forward.”

The leader of the council has accused Labour of ignoring the reality that the financial climate presents.

Coun David Renard said: “This statement is an illustration of Labour’s failure to recognise the huge financial challenge the council faces - we need to find savings of around £20m a year and that means we must adjust budgets accordingly.

“Over the past few years, not only has the Labour opposition failed to support these savings, they have proposed budget amendments that would have put an extra £2m spending pressure back into the budget.

“Only sound Conservative fiscal management has enabled us to look after as many public services as we still do.

“The draft budget has been in the public domain since the beginning of December. All we have had from opposition is silence. I challenge them to say what extra services they would cut to put more money into roads.”