THE council will ask for a fairer allocation of vehicle excise duty as it needs £108 million to bring the town’s roads to reasonable standard.

Councillors voted unanimously to ask the government for more funding given the desperate situation Bolton’s roads are in.

The motion submitted by Labour councillor Ann Cunliffe calls on the government to reinvest money raised from Bolton residents directly in the borough.

She said: “Residents of Bolton have had enough. Motorists are paying more and more through taxes and the roads are in a worse state due to lack of adequate funding from government.”

Executive Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Cllr Chadwick added: “We now have very scarce resources. So, it’s becoming very challenging for our managers, supervisors and staff to cope with this very difficult task of allocating funds.”

Now the council will write to the government requesting increased levels of investment in road infrastructures.

It will also seek a devolved budget through a "fair" allocation from vehicle excise duty.

Opposition councillors supported the call for more resources to be allocated to the borough, but took issue with the approach.

Conservative leader David Greenhalgh called Cllr Cunliffe’s use of government figures disingenuous.

Cllr Greenhalgh said: “We are the fourth of all the eight regions of funding. The funding has gone up year on year during this government including the coalition government apart from one year.”

His colleague, Cllr Stuart Haslam, expressed concern that Bolton would be worse off if road repairs were funding directly by its motorists.

Cllr Haslam said: “With Bolton having a lower economic base than other parts of the country, the amount of vehicle excise duty collected will be less on the per capita basis than richer areas.

"The inference is clear: that Bolton will lose out and I will not support Bolton losing out on such a formula.”