CRUMBING pavements in the city will get a £5million upgrade this year following a stream of complaints from the public.

It will be the first time in years the city council has allocated a specific pot of cash to carry out the badly needed work.

Last year roads bosses were due to spend £8m on pothole and pavement repairs but decided to bring forward the cash due to be spent this year on a £16m blitz in 2016/17.

In the new financial year which starts on April 1, the council will spend £8m to target 12,000 potholes and a further £5m on pavement resurfacing.

The latest cash boost will help resurface more than 50 miles of streets and a further 50 miles of pavements while a city-wide programme of permanent patch repairs will be carried out at the same time.

In total, the city council has spent £97.5m over five years repairing roads and pavements.

Almost 400 miles of carriageway has been resurfaced - the distance from the city centre to the English Channel.

City council leader Frank McAveety said: "This is good news for the people of Glasgow who deserve decent walking, cycling and driving surfaces.

"It is a substantial amount of money linked to a package of improvement works.

"The cash will allow us to reach beyond the city centre into our communities and neighbourhoods to target improvements to residential streets and paths.

"We also hope it will encourage more active travel by our city residents.

"But this is also a practical programme to spend additional cash today which will lead to even bigger dividends later.

"Already our roads investment programme has lead to a massive reduction in complaints about potholes and accident claims against the council.

"This is a win-win situation for all Glaswegians when council budgets are already under huge strain."

Engineers are studying safety reports, public complains and previous compensation claims, along with reports from bus and taxi drivers to target areas where spending will have the maximum impact.

In 2012, the council received 10,745 complaints from the public about potholes but last year that figure fell to 3149.

And there was a 40% drop in the number of liability claims from the public.

Last year, Audit Scotland published a major report on the condition of Scotland's roads which showed Glasgow delivered one of the highest levels of spending for every kilometre of road at around £15,000 - more than five times the figure spent in some areas.

The organisation ranked the city among a minority of Scottish councils judged to be spending enough to maintain or improve the condition of its roads.

And Glasgow was in the top 10 for the percentage of its road network rated as being in an acceptable condition.

However, the report said the city's roads still require further investment and roads bosses say the new cash is, in part, a response to that.