MOTORISTS are facing a winter of discontent in North Lincolnshire as funding is slashed for pothole repairs and road salting.

North Lincolnshire Council will lose £1.2 million in Government grants used to maintain roads and repair cracks.

The cuts are part of the coalition's bid to save cash and reduce the national deficit – but mean council chiefs have around 20 per cent less cash than in previous years.

Rob Beales, North Lincolnshire Council's head of better routes and road maintenance, said: "It's stuff like potholes that will be affected by this cut.

"Roads where we were going to carry out some resurfacing we've had to push back into next year's programme.

"We have to deal with roads that are unsafe first."

Council chiefs said they now have to prioritise which roads need the most urgent attention and will have to postpone some work.

Councillor Bernard Regan, cabinet member for highways, planning and energy, said: "We have to comb through all our schemes and sort out those that can be deferred or cancelled altogether.

"I'm looking at every last project on a list of work and the weaker projects will be deducted from the list."

Minor work such as fixing potholes will be delayed. Last year the council fixed more than 7,000 of them.

"It's a seasonal problem and there's no doubt it will come back," said Mr Regan. "It's particularly bad in North Lincolnshire as cars don't chew up the roads – it's 44 tonne HGVs and they really do punish the road surface.

"Then if you have a really bad winter, freeze thaw expands in holes in the surface and the material is thrown all over the place when the next vehicle drives over it."

He said in previous years the council salted 52 per cent of the region's roads.

"We'll have to consider our salt routes and devise a plan B in the instance of a severe winter," said Mr Regan. "We really cannot afford to tie up resources in valuable piles of salt which may or may not be used. We're now looking at our salting route information.

"It's quite disappointing – we've never had such a problem before."

Mr Beales said some roads which were hit last winter would not have been repaired.

These include projects on Willoughby Road and Collum Avenue, Scunthorpe.

Carol Vivins, 63, of Collum Avenue, said: "I wouldn't be very happy if the work didn't go ahead.

"Potholes don't do your car much good, and they're a risk for people on push bikes."

Andrew Theaker, 42, of Collum Avenue, said: "It's frustrating but you have to deal with it as you've no choice. You can't fill them in yourself.

"I understand the council only has a limited budget. It doesn't happen in a day."

Road repairs and salting come under the council's Local Transport Plan.