TOWN hall chiefs are calling for money the government raises from Bury motorists to be spent on improving the borough’s roads.

A motion before full council tonight urges the government to allow vehicle excise duty paid on Bury-registered vehicles to be spent on its highways.

Several councillors want interim chief executive Pat Jones-Greenhalgh to write to the Department of Transport about the issue.

Research from the New Economy organisation has calculated that Bury residents pay £18m a year in vehicle excise duty — commonly referred to as road tax. It goes to central government, but Labour councillors claim that even half that amount would help keep the borough’s roads in better condition.

Cllr Jamie Walker said: “The current situation is clearly unfair. The money local people pay in road taxes is being used to resurface roads and fill potholes in other parts of the country.

“All we are asking for is that a proportion of the £18m we pay in road taxes comes back to us so we can fix our own roads.

"This will save the government, the council and, most importantly, local people huge amounts of money in the long term.”

Council Leader Rishi Shori said it was “absolutely right” to raise the issue.

He said: “The condition of the roads has deteriorated and not been helped by recent freak weather. The £10m investment in the roads has started but we could make a much greater difference with a proportion of the monies paid in Road Tax. This Conservative government has stripped the council of almost £73m in funding. The least it could do is allow us some leeway to fix our roads.”

The borough has 660km of roads and almost 110,000 registered vehicles.

Labour says the council needs £6m a year to keep roads in good condition, but only receives £2m from the Department of Transport, which it also has to spend on footways, highways structures and public rights of way.

The motion says the by keeping VED receipts in the borough the council could spend heavily in bringing the road assets in Bury up to a good standard that residents deserve and invest in new schemes to tackle congestion.

It adds that there could also be further investment in green transport schemes “in order to reduce our environmental footprint and in line with the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s plan to make Greater Manchester the Greenest City Region in the UK.”