NEWPORT council will spend an extra £5.7 million on repairing roads and pavements in the next three years.

The Welsh Assembly has allocated £131,267 to the council for the 2012/13 financial year, which will help pay towards running costs of the works funded by the council's £1.9 million spending in each of the next three years.

This money comes under the Assembly's Local Government Borrowing Initiative (LGBI) and the council will get £131,267 from the Assembly in each of the next three years.

In 2009, the council launched a £21 million road and pavement improvement scheme funded using borrowing powers, dubbed Project 21.

This money will be used for a further programme of roadworks, not included in Project 21.

Newport council said before it launched Project 21 it had a huge backlog of maintenance repairs and increasing numbers of compensation claims.

The £5.7 million the council will spend on reapirs in the next three years will be borrowed money.

Finance Minister Jane Hutt said: "We know that local authority budgets across Wales are under pressure which is why we have introduced the LGBI. We want to help councils address revenue pressures, and see them undertake new and necessary capital investment in our highways.

"By providing Newport Local Authority with £131,267 in the first year of the scheme they will be boosting their capital spending by £1.9m this year resulting in immediate improvements to roads and highways. Without our effective collaboration, this kind of investment would, quite simply, have been unaffordable.

Labour leader Bob Bright added: "The funding will be used to carry out much-needed improvements which will make our roads and pavements safer for motorists and pedestrians.