ALMOST one-in-five of York's roads are in a poor state of repair.

New figures reveal that 154 kilometres of the city's 810km road network are badly damaged and in need of work such as structural maintenance, attention to crumbling surfaces and potholes.

The Department of Transport figures were uncovered by Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary, John Thurso, and show that 19 per cent of York's roads are in a poor condition.

Calling for action, Mr Thurso said: "The Government must take steps to improve road conditions as poor roads are potentially dangerous for all road users including cyclists, pedestrians and motorists.

"Rather than funding costly and often unnecessary road expansion, the Government should focus its resources on fixing damaged roads."

A City of York Council spokeswoman said: "The council has put an extra £500,000 into repairing footways and carriageways in the last year to try to improve the current status."

Coun Ann Reid, transport and planning executive member, said the council's latest figure for roads in poor condition, termed grade three, was 17 per cent - slightly lower than the Department of Transport's statistics.

During the past four years, the number of grade three roads has remained between 16 and 18 per cent.

"We are putting in money to stand still basically," said Coun Reid. "If we wanted to bring all our roads and footpaths up to grade one condition, it would cost us about £21 million. More Government money would be welcome." The figures show improvements are also needed for 158km of North Yorkshire's roads - two per cent of the total.

A North Yorkshire County Council spokesman said: "Bearing in mind we have a very tight budget for maintenance, we are doing our very best in the circumstances to ensure that all routes in the county are maintained to a high standard.

"The fact that we have more than 8,000km of roads to care for in itself shows how we are tackling the job."

Nationally, there are 59,000km of damaged roads, or 21 per cent of the road network, according to Department of Transport statistics.

Local authorities in England spent £1.95 billion on highway maintenance in 2002-03 - yet they claim there is a £1.1 billion a year shortfall in road repairs.

Updated: 07:51 Tuesday, September 07, 2004