GOVERNMENT ministers are to be urged to come up with funding for landslip repairs.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council commissioned the £3m reconstruction of Loftus Bank, following a devastating landslide in 1999.

Five years on, there has been a further landslip, and Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Ashok Kumar is pressing for an early meeting with Transport Ministers.

He said: "I have had a lot of representations from residents and businesses in Loftus about the need to see that the work is done as soon as possible and that it tackled in such a way as to ensure that the repairs are permanent.

"Loftus is a community totally dependent on the A174 for access to the outside world.

"The only other route is a long detour via Liverton Village and the A171 moors road - something that can easily put an extra half an hour on what might just be a local journey."

He added: "It is clear that the work needed will be intensive - as it was the last time the bank needed repair - and may be costly. We need to impress on Department of Transport ministers the need to see that this work is adequately funded."

About 20,000 tons of unstable ground was replaced with 200,000 tons of earth after the 1999 disaster. A 173-metre culvert was built for a stream, and a 140-metre tunnel to accommodate a sewer, in the nine-month operation.