A ROAD maintenance time-bomb is ticking away under Bury's streets - and it may never be defused.

While scarce money is switched to desperate schools and social services, the roads are crumbling away.

Officers admit they do not see the problem getting any better, as more and more people sue the council for tripping over or falling into potholes.

The gloomy forecast comes in the wake of a survey by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

The institution's figures show the maintenance backlog on local authority streets in Britain - all roads except motorways and trunk roads - has increased in one year alone by 20 per cent to £4.1 billion.

The problem in Bury is likely to get even worse.

While the Government is giving extra money for schools next year, it has cut, by £300,000, Bury's Standard Spending Assessment, the amount it thinks the council should be spending, for highways.

Mr Ian Cheetham, development and environmental services director, said that at today's prices Bury roads are underfunded by £3 million a year, with a £10 million backlog of repairs to be cleared. "Spending on local roads is always going to be problematic," said Mr Cheetham. "We're competing for resources with other more sensitive services." Earlier this year the Bury Times revealed that the council had to put an extra £400,000 of taxpayers' money into the pot to meet rising claims, taking the total to £2 million.

Mr Cheetham said: "The level of claims and insurance premiums is a real concern to us."

Mr David Bayliss, the ICE's transport board chairman, said: "The results of the survey are the inevitable consequence of consistent underfunding of maintenance budgets over a number of years."

He said the backlog was "completely unacceptable" because of the cost in putting it right, wear and tear on vehicles, and injuries to pedestrians.

"Since local authority roads comprise 96 per cent of the British road network by length, this is a problem which affects us all," he said.

"The bulk of our road network is in a worse condition than many of our European partners, especially France and Germany."

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