Unsurfaced and unclassified roads (UURs) which have been eroded by off-road vehicles are set to be repaired to help boost the local economy.

Leading members of North Yorkshire County Council,  which is responsible for the maintenance of one of the most extensive networks of UURs in England, will consider a recommendation to spend £120,000 in the coming year for repairs.

The move would be a departure for the authority as, historically, it has carried out limited maintenance on UURs, prioritising funding for the maintenance of the surfaced road network.

Last year, North Yorkshire County Council estimated the cost of clearing the backlog of maintenance on the county’s roads to be more than £300m, which the authority’s leaders blame on insufficient Government funding.

An officers’ report states owing partly to increasing recreational use of its UUR network by off-road vehicles, the estimated cost of maintenance required to bring the UUR roads into sustainable condition is in the region of £1.85m.

The report states: “In common with other recreational use of the

highway network this has the potential to bring an economic benefit to local businesses that provide food and accommodation, in addition to tour operators, garages and specialist suppliers catering for off-road vehicles.

“For the disabled or mobility-impaired the vehicular access over the UUR network can provide an opportunity to access some of the remoter parts of our countryside that is often taken for granted by the more able-bodied.”

However, while UURs form eight per cent of North Yorkshire’s road network, they are a tiny element of the road network nationally, and are not included in the Government funding formula for highway maintenance.

In many cases the only resolution open to the authority to halt the erosion caused by off-road vehicles is to investigate the need for permanent Traffic Regulation Orders to ban or limit use by the vehicles.

But officers say the work which goes in to introducing the orders can be extremely time-consuming – 500 officer hours were recently spent on one in Hambleton district – particularly when off-road vehicle groups launch a legal challenge of the orders.

The officers’ report adds: “Due to various factors, one of which being the mechanically powered vehicles effect upon the often loose surface of these routes, their deterioration, once begun, can accelerate rapidly.”

The council, which is transferring responsibility for UURs to its countryside services team to utilise its expertise in repairing non-surfaced routes, said its programme of repairs to UURs would “begin to address the issue of route damage”.