A senior Cumbrian politician has spoken of his delight at new funding for further plastic road trials in the county.

Keith Little, Cumbria County Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, spoke of his excitement at being able to continue trialling a groundbreaking new type of road surface made from recycled plastic waste.

“I’m delighted that our bid to expand our trial of recycled plastics in road surfacing has been successful,” said Mr Little.

“The county council was the very first highways authority in England to carry out trials with the ground-breaking plastic-based bitumen replacement material and have been leading the way in using the innovative MacRebur product for some time now to resurface sections of highway in Cumbria with positive results.

The £1.6m funding from the Department for Transport was announced yesterday as part of an almost £23m investment designed to future-proof the country’s roads.

Cumbria is the only area in the north of England - and one of just eight local authorities in the UK - to receive this funding.

The county council will partner with Carlisle-based company MacRebur to carry out the trial on Cumbrian roads.

Supported by a research team based at universities in the UK, Australia and the US, the project has been hailed as a significant step in the fight against plastic waste.

“It’s encouraging to see that the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, sees Cumbria as a serious contender in innovative working practices,” Mr Little continued.

“This new cash injection will mean that our teams can not only use this new technology for more test sites but also trial it to fill pot-holes too.

“If our trials are found to be successful then authorities up and down the country could soon be adopting a similar approach to here in Cumbria.”