Council says it lacks the funds to upgrade any unadopted roads

COMMUNITIES facing a multi-million-pound unadopted roads headache have been told there is no money to tackle the issue.

Councillors previously agreed to ask the authority’s chief executive to write to the UK and Scottish governments to ask if a grant scheme could be set up to help residents fix their streets.

Westminster replied that roads are a devolved issue, and Holyrood said it has no plans for such a scheme.

The responses were revealed to Angus Council’s communities committee this week.

Councillors also heard the area has 175 unadopted roads, with known issues on almost a quarter of them.

In Letham – the largest village in Angus – exasperated residents have set up a local lottery to create a pothole repair fund.

Infrastructure services director Ian Cochrane said the cost of bringing an unadopted road to a standard for inclusion on the list of public roads works out at about £1.3 million to £1.5m per kilometre.

“There is no budget allocation for bringing unadopted roads or footways up to the appropriate standard,” he said.

Arbroath West and Letham councillor Richard Moore, said: We know the cost of achieving the adoptable standard is a seven-figure sum per kilometre. How many residents have that sort of money available?

“The affected section of Braehead Road (in Letham) would cost the residents over £50,000 per property to bring it to the required standard.

“There is a problem and pretending to be an ostrich will not make it go away.”

Montrose SNP councillor Bill Duff said: “It is a massive problem but one of those problems in life that we are not likely to sort in the next 20 years.”

Carnoustie Independent David Cheape said: “Unadopted roads will bring other problems and you can’t just kick it into the long grass for 20 years.”

Braehead Road in Letham is a blackspot for potholes.