Warning Edinburgh’s roads ‘will get worse’ not better up to 2030
Edinburgh's roads are going to get worse between now and 2030, council officials have warned.
A report for the transport and environment committee says there is not enough money even to maintain them in their current condition over the rest of the decade.
And it warns of an increase in accident claims against the council, damage to the council's reputation and a need for more expensive repairs in the long term.
The council set aside more than £15 million in the 2022/23 budget agreed in February for its Roads and Footway Capital Investment Programme for the current year, of which £9.6m was earmarked for carriageway and footways work, with the rest covering street lighting, traffic signals and other roads-related investment.
An additional £1m has also been allocated for improvements to transport infrastructure from extra funding announced later by the Scottish Government. That includes £450,000 for surface enhancements and £300,000 for footway renewals.
But the report says: “Whilst Edinburgh has shown an improvement in the overall condition of the carriageway network in the past few years, unfortunately, with the current budget allocations for carriageway and footway investment within the capital strategy 2020-2030 there are insufficient funds to maintain Edinburgh’s roads in their current condition.
"This will result in deterioration in all classifications of roads across Edinburgh’s road network. This could increase the number of accident claims received and reputational damage to the council. A deterioration will also increase the cost to bring back Edinburgh’s carriageway network to an improving condition as more expensive treatments will be required.”
Lib Dem group leader Kevin Lang said it was the first time officials had warned the city’s roads would worsen in years ahead. And he said it was “one of the clearest examples” of the impact of Scottish Government cuts to the council’s funding.
Transport convener Scott Arthur acknowledged the state of the roads was not satisfactory and the council faced difficulties in trying to address the problem. He said: "As an administration we're going to try our very best within limited resources to improve roads, but it is a challenge."