The VALE of Glamorgan Council has agreed to bring forward £500,000 worth of spending on much needed highway maintenance.

Cabinet agreed to recommendations today (Monday, July 3) that an additional £500,000 is set aside for the Big Fill Initiative in 2017/2018.

The council claims the move agreed to this week would bring the total due to be spent on resurfacing to at least £1 million in this financial year.

The move to bring forward the £500,000 is funded from the visible services reserve.

But Cllr Neil Moore, former leader of the council, said that this is not new money but simply moving money that Labour set aside for roads and pavements in 2018/2019.

"At the same time, we put another half a million pounds in the resurfacing budget for this year, 2017/18," he said.

"All that is being done by the Tories is recycling the money and bringing forward money already in the budget, to spend this year.

"So, what happens next year when there is no money allocated?

"It is also claimed that they have put money into Labour’s Big Fill scheme.

"They seem to forget that when Labour set the budget we allocated £300k year on year until 2021/22 for this highway asset renewal fund i.e. Big Fill so where is the new money?

"It appears to me that the new Vale Conservative council is trying to re-write history and claim things, not of their making.

"To date their grandiose proclamations, appear to keep doing what Labour had already planned and budgeted for."

The council says additional money has also been made available for Dinas Powys to Cardiff bus priority measures.

Cllr John Thomas, leader of the council, said: "There is clearly a greater need for resurfacing roads and pavements throughout the Vale than was allowed for in the spending programme previously agreed.

"This is why I have established this new road resurfacing fund.

"This is an area of the council’s work that we know to be one of residents’ top priorities, and so in addition to bringing funding forward I am commissioning a review of future funding arrangements for highway repairs."

Cllr Geoff Cox, cabinet member for neighbourhood services and transport, said: "This acceleration of planned resurfacing and further consideration of plans is greatly needed and with the current backlog of repairs in the Vale it was imperative that this council acted quickly.

"The additional money will be spent wisely throughout the Vale.

"The highways team will be using objective criteria to assess the roads most in need of repair and so ensure that the areas that most need this investment will be those that benefit.

"I will be presenting an updated three year highway maintenance plan to cabinet this summer setting out an order of priority for the enhanced resurfacing programme."