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

Redcar and Cleveland Council commissioned the £3m reconstruction of Loftus Bank, in east Cleveland, 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 is tackled in such a way as to ensure that the repairs are permanent, and do not have to be merely repeated in a few years' time."

Dr Kumar said Loftus was dependent on the A174 for access to the outside world and for people making journeys to and from work.

He said: "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."

"We needs to impress on Department of Transport ministers the need to see that this work is adequately funded and I will now be pressing in writing for an early meeting with those ministers to see that this funding is secured.''

About 20,000 tons of unstable ground were removed and replaced with 200,000 tons of earth in the restoration work, following the 1999 landslide.

A 173-metre culvert was built for a stream, and a parallel 140-metre tunnel was constructed to accommodate a sewer.