Denbighshire County Council is in danger of being sued by motorists if it doesn’t spend more to improve its roads, a report warns.

Councillors on the performance committee will discuss the authority’s highways maintenance strategy when they meet on Thursday.

A report before members said that although there have been improvements in the state of the county’s roads more needed to be done.

The number of roads rated as being in a poor condition has gone from 14 per cent to 2.7 per cent since 2011.

The report says: “There are still roads in this category that are in need of significant work and will require substantial investment.”

The council has had some outside help tackling roads with the Welsh Government providing a one-off payment of £100,000 to help with damage caused by last winter’s severe weather.

Cardiff has also given £1.2 million to pay for four projects to improve problem roads around Denbighshire.

The current annual budget for spending on roads is £2.55m but councillors were warned that would need to rise.

If it doesn’t increase, they have been told, then there will be a deterioration in road conditions and a potential for an increase in third party claims.

The report went on to say: “There are still significant schemes within the county that cannot be funded and we are having to manage these as best as we can; the recent work on the A547 Abergele Straits is a prime example of this.”

It added: “For the bulk of the network there is a clear deterioration in condition and this will lead to increased pressures on the revenue budget (due to the statutory need to make potholes safe) so any investment before this point will prove to be invaluable.”

The report added: “So as not to lead the council open to litigation due to a failure to maintain the roads, we need a robust methodology to determine scheme prioritisation and this needs to be under-pinned with good inspection procedures and a suitable code of practice – all of which are achievable.

“The other risk relates to contractor availability to undertake the necessary work, but this can be mitigated by good planning and procurement processes and these are already in place.”