‘Astonishing’ £1.7bn backlog lays bare the dire state of Scotland’s road network
THE Scottish Government has been accused of “leaving roads to crumble” as new figures reveal a near £1.7 billion repair backlog.
Local authorities across the country are facing multi-millionpound bills to fix damaged roads, Freedom of Information data has revealed, with Dumfries and Galloway, Highland, and Argyll and Bute councils seeing huge repair backlogs worth more than £100 million.
According to the figures, taxpayers north of the Border would need to spend £1.68bn on repairs to bring the roads up to scratch.
Neil Bibby, Scottish Labour’s transport spokesman, said the “astonishing figures lay bare the dire state of disrepair Scotland’s roads are in after years of neglect”.
But the Scottish Government said local government funding was up, and that maintenance of local roads was the responsibility of councils.
Dumfries and Galloway Council had the highest repair bill backlog, with a bill of just over £217m.
The data also revealed that Highland Council had a backlog worth more than £194m, while Argyll and Bute Council had one worth £112m. Six councils did not reveal the extent of their road repair backlogs, including East Lothian, Renfrewshire, and Aberdeen City.
Mr Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, said the Scottish Government had “cut funding to the bone, leaving roads to crumble and taxpayers to pick up the bill”.
“Our pothole-ridden roads are a daily reminder of how badly the SNP have let down communities all around us,” he said.
“Now the Greens and the SNP have teamed up to hit councils with another year of brutal cuts things are only set to get worse.”
He added “the SNP must stop burying their heads in the sand” over the matter.
A Scottish Government spokesman said that “despite continued economic uncertainty facing us all due to the pandemic, we are treating councils fairly and providing a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent to local authority budgets for the coming year – despite cuts to Scotland’s overall budget by the UK Government”. The spokesman added: “The budget provides local government revenue funding amounting to almost £12.7bn – a cash increase of almost £1bn and a real-terms increase of £681.8.
“In addition, councils will receive a fair share of a further £93.9m which is currently undistributed.
“Maintenance of the local road network is the responsibility of local authorities and it is the responsibility of individual councils to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.”
Meanwhile, the City of Edinburgh Council had a repair backlog worth just over £77m, according to the data, while Glasgow City Council’s was worth £96m.