THE state of Barrow’s back streets has been branded ‘embarrassing’ - but moves are underway to get them fixed.

A list of the 100 worst in the borough is being drawn up by highways bosses to prioritise repairs for a meeting in the autumn.

But there were warnings the council does not have an endless pot of money for potholes, craters or urgent resurfacing.

Roads budgets are often quickly spent on key roads used by thousands of vehicles every day, a meeting of Barrow Local Committee was told.

Barrow mayor Cllr Kevin Hamilton said: “We must keep fighting for funding because while we are fixing one or two backstreets, others are deteriorating.”

He named the condition of Warwick Street and Provincial Street as among the worst that he knew.

He said utility companies such as United Utilities also had a backlog of expensive repairs because the Victorian sewer systems under back streets were now reaching the end of their lives and collapsing.

Cllr Hamilton said: “We have potholes within potholes within potholes and some of the back streets that I have seen are embarrassing.”

The Barrow area has among the largest number of back streets in Cumbria – estimated at 250 and covering 33km. Cllr Helen Wall said families wanted children to be active, yet they couldn’t play in the front street because of traffic, yet many back streets were unsafe.

She said: “We want kids to get on their bikes, loving cycling and being out and about. I have had residents complain to me about kids falling off their bikes into potholes. We want the back streets safe. All the mental health and educational benefits of kids playing out is something we want to happen.”

Cllr Anne Burns said other towns in the northwest had ‘reclaimed’ their backs treets for youngsters and at certain times they were designed as official ‘play streets’ which encouraged children to all play together.

She suggested county council officials explore the possibility of doing the same in Barrow.

Kieran Tetchner, the area highways manager for Barrow, said back streets were an ‘adopted highway’ maintained at the expense of the county council and that it had a duty to keep them safe.

Cllr Frank Cassidy blamed the shortage of funds on a ‘decade of unrelenting austerity’.