CRATERS, cracks and potholes are set to blight Redbridge roads for years to come after the council missed out on a third of a billion pounds' worth of Government cash.

Two weeks ago the Guardian revealed the shocking state of many of the borough's highways, some of which are not due to be resurfaced for another 150 years at the current rate of repair.

And now Redbridge Council, which has only been allocated a quarter of the £6 million needed to maintain the borough's streets this year, were denied a cut of the Government's £1.2 billion Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for local authorities.

Redbridge made the final five in the shortlist of nine councils competing for the grant last December, but its bid for £323,400,000 has now been defeated by bids from Hounslow, the Isle of Wight and Sheffield Councils, who were all awarded millions to get roads and street lights up to scratch.

A spokeswoman for Redbridge Council said: "The council had bid for the PFI credits, to be supplemented by its own funding to meet the overall costs of a 25-year contract to bring the council's highways network, including all roads, lights, signs, verges, and footpaths up to standard, and subsequently to maintain them for the full 25 years of the contract.

As such, the contract would have had an impact across the entire highway network."

As it stands, the £71 million backlog of outstanding work will continuing to be a burden on both the motorist and the council, which has promised to improve roads where funding permits while it makes further applications to the Department for Transport (DFT).

The council spokeswoman said it had yet to receive feedback from the DFT about its recent application, so could not comment on why they were rejected.

She added: "We remain very positive about this approach to tackling the borough's, and indeed, the nation's growing highways maintenance problems and hope to be amongst those authorities selected in the next round of PFI's."