Pothole problems persist despite efforts of council
ANGRY motorists are still finding Borders roads littered with potholes despite the council spending millions to combat the problem.
Problems have been highlighted on the B709, the Shiplaw to Lamancha Road, within Peebles on Connor Ridge, on parts of the A72 and the A703 Edinburgh Road.
Road user Bob Watterson made a video of many potholes on the B709, from Innerleithen to the Gordon Arms, titled: “This is what passes for a road in the Borders.”
This road’s deterioration is blamed on its regular use by logging lorries.
Pippa Jackson, from Innerleithen, photographed potholes, using a white work’s identification card for scale, on the Shiplaw minor road which leads off the A703, near Eddleston to Lamancha.
Ms Jackson said: “There are many potholes of various sizes, the two I chose are about 150m before the main Cloich sign, heading from Eddleston, a standard ID badge was used for scale.”
Ms Jackson reported the potholes to Scottish Borders Council (SBC).
SBC said that “permanent works at this location” would be considered for “possible inclusion in future planned works programmes”.
It added that this would need to be considered “along with all other competing priorities”.
A freedom of information request revealed that SBC had spent £9.6m on pothole repairs in the last three years – more than any other local authority in the UK.
An SBC spokesperson said: “SBC has nearly 3,000 kilometres of adopted road to maintain
across its area, the fourth largest local authority road network in Scotland.
“Each year we compile our planned surface treatment works programme from our records of identified sections of carriageway in need of surface treatment.
“As part of this review we take into account public reporting of road conditions and also information from planned inspections that are carried out at frequen
cies that correspond with the road classifications.
“Unfortunately we are not in a position to treat all identified sections with a permanent form of treatment and must apply a prioritisation process to determine our annual programme which meets available budgets.
“This inevitably means that the remaining identified sections of carriageway have to be repaired and maintained using a more
temporary type of treatment.
“The durability of these repairs can be severely impacted by periods of inclement weather.
“Between 2020/21 and 2022/23, the council spent almost £40m on planned, reactive and cyclical roads maintenance and we continue to invest significant funds, despite unprecedented financial challenges and multiple competing priorities, into the local roads network.”