One of the main routes into the Sid Valley is to benefit from a ‘greatly needed’ £500,000 repair project, it has been announced.

The remedial works on the A3052 will see the half-mile stretch from Steven’s Cross on the edge of Sidford to the top of Trow Hill resurfaced – and could be carried out before the summer.

Funding for the scheme was agreed by Devon County Council (DCC) bosses this week.

Councillor Stuart Hughes, DCC’s highways chief, said: “I’m delighted to see that the work on Trow Hill is one of the major schemes in this year’s capital programme and I welcome its inclusion.

“This comprehensive scheme will see almost the entire stretch of the road repaired which greatly needs improving.”

Cllr Hughes said an exact start date for the work had not yet been agreed, but it would hopefully take place before the summer.

The project will be paid for out of a £42.3million funding package from Whitehall.

But Mr Hughes added that the DCC needed around £62million each year to maintain the county’s 8,000-mile road network.

He said: “Due to the current shortfall, deterioration on some classes of road is inevitable because we cannot carry out all necessary structural repair work on lower category roads.

“We must make sure we continue to state our case to the next Government, whoever that may be, for the additional funding that we desperately need.”