£13m pledge to fix city’s potholes nightmare
MILLIONS of pounds are to be poured into repairing Glasgow’s deepening pothole problem – and city leaders say more will be fixed first time.
In the budget this week, city treasurer, Allan Gow, said an extra £9 million would go into a £23m Neighbourhood Infrastructure Fund – with £13m to be spent on potholes and pavements.
This week the Evening Times reported how last year there were more than 20,000 potholes reported to the council across the city.
And the compensation payouts to drivers for damage to wheels and tyres was more than £26,000.
Last year more than £1m was spent by the local authority repairing the potholes.
Often a temporary patching solution is applied to repair potholes which can be quickly damaged again by heavy traffic or bad weather.
Depending on the seriousness of the pothole, its size and location, it is either repaired within 24 hours for the most urgent, five days or 60 days for those deemed low risk.
The new policy is designed to see a 65 per cent reduction in the number of temporary repairs.
The Evening Times Spothole campaign is for the second year running highlighting the worst of the city’s potholes and calling for more action to get them fixed.
The end of the winter weather can leave damaged roads across the city
Earlier this month, we told how 1,200 potholes have been reported across Glasgow in the last month.
A total of 1,260 potholes have been spotted during Glasgow City Council’s routine road inspections, while 1,500 have been repaired either permanently or temporarily by the local authority’s road teams.
Anna Richardson, the councillor who has responsibility for roads and pavements, said there will be a shift in focus in dealing with repairs.
She said: “We will continue our commitment to neighbourhoods. We will direct much of this into maintaining roads and pavements. We will revise policy to fix more potholes first time and reduce temporary patching.”
A recent survey by a motoring website using freedom of information found compensation payouts in Glasgow had dropped by almost per cent. It also found motorists across the UK received £276 on average, which the organisation said was 40 per cent less than five years ago.
In Glasgow it found the figure was £164, a drop of 23 per cent over five years.