Senior councillors were “horrified” by the state of some pavements in Penrith and other residential areas on recent trips to Cumbrian towns.
Deputy leader of Westmorland and Furness Council Andrew Jarvis said on recent trips to Penrith and Barrow cabinet members were appalled by the condition of some pavements.
This comes as cabinet member for highways and customer services, councillor Peter Thornton, told council bosses he would like to use additional government funds to improve the state of pavements throughout Westmorland and Furness.
Council documents reveal 8% of footways and cycle paths in the area controlled by the local authority require maintenance.
In December, the Department for Transport announced that Westmorland and Furness Council will receive a highways maintenance allocation of £31.05 million in the 2025-26 financial year.
The funding consists of a baseline amount of £22.73 million as well as £8.33 million in new funding for the upcoming financial year, an increase which Mr Thornton described as ‘very welcome’.
Mr Jarvis said: “I am particularly pleased to see the emphasis on pavements, which I think have been a little bit of a Cinderella service in recent years. Not all our residents drive, I suspect 99.9% of them use pavements.”
He added a couple of months ago the cabinet visited Penrith as well as Barrow and were ‘horrified’ by the condition of some of the pavements in residential areas.
Mr Jarvis told cabinet members it would have been ‘impossible’ to use a mobility scooter on the pavements and probably not a pushchair either.
He added: “That affects the daily lives of our residents, and so please work with our local councillors, let’s identify those areas where people live and are walking day in day out as the priorities.
“Let’s prioritise first those things which most affect residents in their daily lives, and that all too often is in areas in our towns which have been under resourced in the past.”
Cabinet member for adult social care councillor Patricia Bell said it would be “great” if the council could raise the bar regarding the standard of pavements.
Ms Bell added: “For those who have difficulty with mobility, uneven pavements are an absolute nightmare, and it isn’t just that group of people, it’s mums and dads trying to push pushchairs along.”
Councillor Thornton also told cabinet members he would like to use the increase in government funding for highways to improve the quality of unclassified roads.
Council figures show 23% of unclassified roads require maintenance, in comparison with 3% for main roads.
Mr Thornton said: “Our A roads are in pretty good condition; I remember driving back from Alston to Kendal with Jonathan (Brook) and saying, ‘spot a single pothole’. We didn’t find one, I don’t think.
“But we could’ve gone off those roads and gone on some of the backroads of Eden and it wouldn’t be quite so long before we found a pothole. I think we do need to do some work with some of our unclassified roads.”
Cabinet members approved the highways asset management strategy from 2025 to 2028 at a meeting on Tuesday at Voreda House, Penrith.
