AN amendment submitted by the Liberal Democrat group to yesterday’s budget was shot down for the seventh year in a row - but the party’s leader says she’s not surprised.

The amendment to the budget proposed doubling the council’s additional investment in repairing principal roads and side streets from £2m to £4m.

They also proposed creating a £600,000 Preventative Road Safety Fund to invest in proactive measures to prevent deaths and casualties.

It was moved by leader Hannah Kitching, who praised the council’s leadership for securing additional money, but added: “The borough’s roads are crumbling.

“Across Penistone, Dodworth, Kingstone, Darton and across the rest of the town, a soaking wet winter followed by a cold snap has further destroyed the surface of roads ravaged by potholes, resulting in damage to cars and danger to cyclists.

“The council has admitted it is receiving hundreds of pothole reports every week and simply cannot keep up with repairs - plus we know that the botch job patching only lasts until the next rainy day.

“We have previously suggested more innovative and cost effective solutions to this issue, but to no avail.

“It is clear that many of these roads just need resurfacing properly, and while we welcome all the investment into this programme we know from previous years it is not enough.”

Coun Steve Hunt, who seconded the amendment, said the state of the town’s roads was the worst he’d ever seen and added: “If the council is serious about reducing the number of casualties on our roads it cannot wait for accidents to happen before acting.

“We know that residents want to see more speed indicator devices, well-staffed school crossing patrols, traffic regulation orders and other measures designed to prevent accidents.

“We hope that the £600,000 fund we have proposed will offer an opportunity to implement initiatives to enable the council to make progress on its target of reducing the number of KSI casualties by 50 per cent by 2030.”

Coun Robert Barnard, who represents the Penistone East ward as a Conservative member, told the meeting he somewhat agrees with Coun Hunt.

“I find myself in the awkward position where I’m agreeing with Coun Hunt in that Barnsley’s roads are the worst he’s seen them.

“They look like they’ve been used for bombing practice by the US air force.

“If I have to agree with the Lib Dems, then it’s getting to the stage where I’ll need to lie down in a dark room.”

Lib Dem Councillor David Greenhough said it will come back to ‘bite’ those who don’t vote for the additional measures at May’s elections.

Leader of the council Sir Steve Houghton said: “I cannot agree with the amendment.

“Never have we set a budget against the advice of the Director of Finance.

“It’s always an emotive subject.

“If it’s so bad, why didn’t you make an amendment to increase council tax to 4.99 per cent?

“That would have covered this for the next few years.

“I would spend £100m on the roads, I really would.

“But the reality is that the government do what they do.

“We are improving roads - but probably not at the rate people would like and I get that.”

The Lib Dem amendment was rejected for the seventh year running - to no surprise of Coun Kitching.

A total of 40 councillors voted against, while 16 voted in favour.

She said: “It is always disappointing but never surprising that our budget amendment has not been supported by Labour councillors.

“As always we brought forward sensible and carefully costed proposals that had been developed with our residents’ priorities in mind.

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party to ever challenge Labour’s budget and come up with our own ideas and initiatives.

“We are proud to be an effective opposition in Barnsley and hope that, as in previous years, we will see these ideas implemented at some future time.”