CASH given to Cornwall Council to fix potholes caused by harsh winter weather has instead been used to plug a hole in its car parking budget.

The Government provided grants to local councils earlier this year to help cover the cost of road maintenance bills, which had increased following the past two severe winters.

By providing the money councils would be able to fix potholes and cracked surfaces caused by the cold weather.

However, it has now been revealed that Cornwall Council has instead used the cash to ease a £2.5 million shortfall in car park income.

It was recently revealed that the council was also having to use £1.25 million from its contingency fund to help cover the shortfall in parking income.

Liberal Democrat deputy group leader Alex Folkes asked at full council on October 18 whether the decision to use the money in this way would have a knock-on effect on road maintenance in Cornwall.

Responding, Councillor Graeme Hicks, Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "The investment in Cornwall's road network continues to be funded through a combination of Government grant, the Local Transport Plan and a separate one-off Department for Transport allocation to deal with two consecutive years of winter damage.

"This additional allocation has created the opportunity to defer some of the maintenance works scheduled for this winter and in doing so, help address the reduction in car park income forecast for 2011-12.

"The deferred works will now be undertaken in the first quarter of the 2012-13 financial year, which will reduce the disruption to the maintenance programme caused by adverse weather conditions and will ensure that Cornwall's road network continues to feature in the upper quartile when assessed nationally.

"As elected members will appreciate this council is a top quartile performer when it comes to highway maintenance and we have addressed the severe winters recently with professionalism and dedication and I can provide assurance that I would not condone anything that would jeopardise this performance."