Scottish councils cut roads spending by £137 million
●Budget fall of 20% since 2010-11 underlines poor state of infrastructure
Councils across Scotland have cut road maintenance funding by 20 per cent over the past seven years in response to pressure on their budgets, a report on local authority finances has found.
Spending by town halls on tackling problems such as potholes on the nation’s roads fell from £691 million in 2010-11 to £554m last year, it said.
The research suggests that spending on education, child protection and social care has been protected at the expense of other services such as roads, culture and leisure services.
The findings are contained in the Local Government Benchmarking Framework, which has been reporting on how much is being spent by councils on services every year since 2010-11.
It shows that unprotected services have endured significant cuts, with spending on roads falling by 20 per cent, planning by 33 per cent and
culture and leisure services by 17 per cent.
Figures showing reduced funding for roads maintenance come after a 2016 Audit Scotland report found that the country’s main roads and motorways were in a “significantly” worse condition than England’s, with more than a third of council-maintained routes in an unacceptable condition.
Council umbrella body Cosla said the new data indicated that cuts to budgets had “really started to bite” but that local authorities were adapting well to the changes.
The report said total funding for Scottish councils had been cut by 7.6 per cent in real terms since 2010-11, falling from £10.5 billion to £9.7bn.
Despite the sharp fall in road funding over the past seven years, spending by councils has actually increased by 1.6 per cent in the past year as they tackle maintenance backlogs.
Research published in October suggested that there are more potholes in Scottish roads than in any other part of the UK, stretching to a combined depth of almost four miles. A total of 154,310 potholes were reported to Scottish councils in 2016, around 16,000 more than the next worst region, the south-west of England, the study by an insurance firm found.
Last week, residents in the Highlands raised concerns about a deterioration in the road surface of the A82, claiming it would “only be a matter of time” before it caused a serious accident.
Road management firm Bear Scotland blamed win- try weather for the potholes on the nation’s second longest A-road, which have left several drivers with burst tyres and broken suspension.
Cosla president Alison Evison said the cuts to local road budgets “will not have gone unnoticed”, adding: “Today’s report shows that the cuts to local government have really started to bite, particularly in the non-statutory services.”
The report said there had been a “slight improvement” in the overall condition of Scottish roads in the past seven years despite the cuts, but in the past year A-roads had shown a “slight deterioration”.
Scottish Conservative local government spokesman Alexander Stewart said: “There are just too many potholes and too many problems. We can now see the reason for this is the SNP’S decision to slash funding.”
At the time of going to press, the Scottish Government had not responded to a request for comment.
No-one should doubt the pressure that councillors are under to find ways to save money.
Swingeing cuts to council budgets – a real terms reduction of about £800 million in just seven years – mean they have had tough choices to make and our elected representatives have rightly focused on protecting education, child protection and social care.
Road maintenance is understandably lower down on the list of priorities, but eventually there comes a point where repeated lack of action to ensure our roads are kept in a fit state becomes a serious problem.
Motorists have a tendency to complain about potholes, so they risk being dismissed for crying wolf.
But when people start warning it’s only a matter of time before an accident is caused by the state of major roads like the A82, it’s clear this is a situation that’s starting to get out of hand. Regular drivers have got used to navigating through the patchwork of potholes, which now stretch to a combined depth of nearly four miles in Scotland. This need to weave about poses a problem for other road users, particularly more vulnerable ones like cyclists, who may not be anticipating the need for an unexpected manoeuvre. Cyclists can also find themselves in severe danger from deep potholes at the side of the road, when riding alongside vehicular traffic. Allowing roads to deteriorate will only mean higher repair costs in the long run and will also increase the amount of money councils have to pay out in compensation for accidents.
While accidents are the major concern, appearances also matter. In Edinburgh, the contrast between the wealth of its large companies and the shabbiness of its streets is becoming noticeable, and this may start to affect the impression of businesspeople and tourists visiting the city.
It’s hard to blame councillors who must try to balance spending priorities every year, but perhaps – under considerable pressure – they have lost sight of the longer term requirements to maintain the road network. So it might be time to try to think about a different system of funding road repairs to ensure they are carried out in a timely and costefficient manner, given this is a cost that must eventually be met. This would mean elected officials would no longer have to choose between looking after children or elderly people and fixing a few potholes, a dilemma that is only ever really going to produce one outcome.