Over a third of nation’s roads in need of repair, damning study reveals

MORE than a third of Scotland’s roads are in need of maintenance, transport chiefs have revealed.

A report lifts the lid on the scale of the pothole crisis across the nation’s cities, towns and villages.

Council transport officials have assessed that 36.3 per cent of the roads they are responsible for are in need of repair.

The worst area is Argyll and Bute, where 54 per cent of roads are in need of urgent attention. Councils across the country are struggling to cope with a huge £1.8billion repairs backlog – amid fears the problem will only get worse due to cash difficulties facing local authorities.

The figures are revealed just days after the Scottish Government rubber-stamped legislation handing councils powers to impose a new tax on staff parking spaces. Jamie Greene, Scottish Conservative transport spokesman, said: ‘The SNP has just implemented plans to tax Scots hundreds of pounds a year to drive to work. Now we’re seeing the chronic state of the roads with cracks, potholes and leaking as the norm.

‘The SNP’s inaction has left Scotland with the worst roads in the UK, home to more than 150,000 potholes – more than Wales, Northern Ireland and the South East of England combined.’

An annual survey of the state of local roads is carried out on behalf of the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS).

Argyll and Bute has 54.4 per cent of roads which ‘should be considered for maintenance treatment’, while the Borders has 45.3 per cent.

The best performing local authority is Orkney, where only 20.4 per cent of roads are in need of repair.

Neil Greig, policy and research director at motoring group IAM RoadSmart, said: ‘It is shocking that a third of roads are needing treatment. This varies from year to year

‘Now seeing the chronic state’

but, as a headline figure, over a third is ridiculous’.

The City of Edinburgh Council yesterday also published a report showing it still had 569 of its busiest roads in need of urgent repair last year.

However, this was lower than 1,034 the previous year, following a £15million investment programme.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: ‘We recognise the importance of a safe and reliable trunk road network and the budget for maintenance for the roads we look after has increased by over £33million to £467million in 2019/20.’

The full national results of the Scottish Roads Maintenance Condition survey for 2018 have not yet been published but each council has been informed of the findings.