CONTROVERSIAL plans to repair a Southampton road which the council does not own will include pavement works and new street lighting.

As previously reported, Southampton City Council plans to invest £250k to repair the unadopted, Lordswood Close in Bassett.

The cul-de-sac is not owned by the council despite being inside the authority’s boundary and instead, those living in the street are expected to pay for works.

Some opposition councillors have now raised concerns that more unadopted roads could be repaired using public money in future if this work gets the go-ahead.

But now, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for growth, Cllr Jeremy Moulton has said that the council will be assessing the roads on a ‘case-by-case basis’ and may intervene on ‘rare occasions’.

One resident of the street claimed they had previously got a quote of £36k to resurface the road, but now it has been announced that the works will mean more than just resurfacing.

Cllr Moulton added: “The council hasn’t done a full assessment of what the construction costs and process is likely to be but it’s intended to cover completely repairing the road, digging it out and relaying the road, doing the pavements and putting in street lightning.”

When asked about just paying to resurface the road, he said: “That was an option that we considered as a council, should we just do some emergency repairs from a health and safety point of view.

“The view we took was, if we did that, we would be having the same conversation in a few years time about the need to do more work. Really to resolve this it needs a proper reconstruction of the road, it hasn’t had any work done on it for 70 odd years.”

But Labour councillor, Lorna Fielker said: “There is not a question that the road does not need to be repaired, it is in poor condition, but there are other private roads in Southampton which are also in need of work.

“Allocating public money to repair this private road in Bassett may lead to other property owners with a repairing responsibility thinking that the Council will pick up the tab.”

The approval to spend this money will be made at a Full Council Meeting on November 17.

Civic chiefs will have an opportunity to ask questions about this decision at that meeting and at an Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee Meeting on Thursday.