KENT County Council is to cut £3million from its highways budget in a move that will mean the resurfacing of hundreds of kilometres of roads will not go ahead.

County transport chiefs insist their decision to axe the money from their road maintenance programme represents the “least worst option” but admit long-standing resurfacing work of many roads will now have to be put on hold.

County councillors have expressed reservations about the spending squeeze, saying that in surveys, the public has consistently told KCC that improving the county’s roads should be a priority.

Peter Raine, KCC’s strategic planning director, said: “A cut of this magnitude means all areas are going to suffer. It will affect our ability to take whole stretches of road, re-surface them and put them in a really decent state.”

However, he said that the cut would only impact on resurfacing work and would not mean that potholes would be left unrepaired or gulleys cleaned.

The budget cut meant that instead of being able to resurface about 550 kilometres of road, KCC spending would only stretch to around 170 kilometres of road.

“It is a return to where we were two or three years ago but it is not a return to the dark ages,” said Mr Raine.

Opposition Labour spokesman Cllr Terry Birkett said: “Once again, highways are the Cinderella service of this county council. Whenever the public is consulted, what comes out as a top priority is [improving] roads.”

Cllr Keith Ferrin, the Conservative cabinet member for highways, said the council had no option because of a Government squeeze on spending.

Details of the cut come in the week KCC unveiled plans to increase the council tax by nearly 5 per cent, twice the rate of inflation.