COUNCIL bosses in Barrow have been praised for keeping a close eye on their spending on highways projects.

Cumbria County Council highways manager, Keiron Tetchner, told the Barrow Local Committee that the area’s £734,000 highways revenue budget was currently forecast to overspend by £8,300 by March next year.

He said its £1.2 million highways capital budget was forecast to overspend by £4,600 – although both totals could be clawed back before spring 2019.

Committee chairman Kevin Hamilton (Lab, Risedale) said of the revenue budget: “Last year it was about £56,000, so we’ve reduced that.

“The capital budget was about £20,000 over last year and is now down to £4,000 – so a big well done.”

The county council uses its revenue budget for works including cleansing, verge maintenance, weed spraying, lighting and signs.

Its capital budget tends to be for more costly projects such as footway patching, surface dressing, traffic signs and road markings.