Road maintenance in Argyll and Bute

Focusing road maintenance on roads classed as ‘amber’ and ‘red’ is good practice and more cost-effective than leaving the road condition to deteriorate further.

This was one of the conclusions made by a review panel for Argyll and Bute Council’s audit and scrutiny committee, which considered how the operations team prioritised roads maintenance work, how surfacing methods used were determined and what other technologies had been considered.

The review also found the way the council allocated revenue and capital budgets across the four council areas is reasonable, although thought could be given to providing additional weighting for island and remote rural areas where maintenance work is much more expensive and making sure developing the programme of works carries the right balance of data examination and professional judgement by engineers on the ground.

The reasons for using surface dressing as a leading treatment option are supported by other industry experts.

The council is exploring opportunities to work with other local authorities and having the chance to budget for more than one year at a time would help ensure better value when planning with suppliers.

The scrutiny panel, comprising independent chairman Martin Caldwell and councillors George Freeman and Richard Trail, gathered evidence from other local authorities, contractors, BEAR Scotland, Transport Scotland, the Improvement Service and council officers.