POTHOLES: Crumbling road fears as pothole bill hits £1.7 BILLION

By Bill Heaney

The cost of fixing potholes on Scotland’s roads is claimed to be almost £1.7bn. Yes, that’s correct, not million but BILLION.

Figures were obtained from local authorities via a freedom of information request , a device used by public bodies to keep secret matters which if released into the public domain which would and should embarrass them,and suggest council repair backlogs run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

The data suggests it would take £1.68 billion of taxpayers’ money to bring Scottish roads up to scratch.

Labour has accused the Scottish government of leaving roads to crumble during the past 15 years in which the SNP have been in government.

Jackie Baillie, pictured right, has reacted to “astonishing” figures which show more than £112 million needs to be invested in Argyll and Bute’s crumbling roads to bring them up to scratch.

Information obtained by Scottish Labour through Freedom of Information revealed that it would take almost £1.7 billion to get Scotland’s local roads up to scratch – and that is excluding six major council areas, including West Dunbartonshire, who didn’t provide the relevant information.

The figure for Argyll and Bute, which takes in Helensburgh, stands at £112,251,000.  Only Dumfries and Galloway and Highland councils had a higher backlog.

This comes as the SNP-Green government pass their budget inflicting a fresh round of cuts to local government, which is likely to drive our roads into an even more dire state of disrepair.

Dumbarton constituency MSP, Jackie Baillie said: “These astonishing figures clearly show the extent of disrepair Scotland’s roads are in and follow years of neglect under the SNP.

“Argyll and Bute has the third highest bill in the country which is a shambolic state of affairs for the people in the communities around Helensburgh and Lomond.

“Over the last 15 years of SNP rule, they have cut funding to the bone, leaving roads to crumble and hard-working taxpayers to pick up the bill.

“Our pothole-ridden roads are a daily reminder of how badly communities have been let down over the past decade and a half and this is only set to get worse as the Greens and SNP have teamed up to hit councils with another year of brutal cuts.

“The SNP must stop burying their heads in the sand about this and show some leadership dealing with the mess they created.”

In its recent budget statement, West Dunbartonshire’s basket case council placed the financing of pothole repairs near the top of its spending plans for the coming year.

The Loch Lomondside A82 Glasgow to Loch Lomond road is the most dangerous road in the UK, according to the BBC Panorama programme, but it has been made worse through years of neglect piecemeal patching.

One angry motorist, who damaged a wheel on his car after hitting a pothole, managed to hold on to his sense of humour when he said: “The pothole was so deep that I would imagine the council will be looking at tenders for the fishing rights in it.”

According to the data, Highland Council had a backlog worth more than £194m, and Argyll and Bute Council, which includes Cardross, Helensburgh and the Lochside,  had one worth £112m.

Six local authorities did not reveal the extent of their road repair backlog, including West Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Renfrewshire, and Aberdeen City.

The City of Edinburgh Council had a repair backlog worth just over £77m, according to the data, while Glasgow City Council had one worth £96m.

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.

Mr Bibby, MSP for West of 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.

“The SNP must stop burying their heads in the sand about this and show some leadership dealing with the mess they created.”

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% to local authority budgets for the coming year – despite cuts to Scotland’s overall budget by the UK government”.

“The budget provides local government revenue funding amounting to almost £12.7bn – a cash increase of almost £1bn and a real terms increase of £681.8m. In addition, councils will receive a fair share of a further £93.9m which is currently undistributed,” the spokesman said.

He added that maintenance of the local road network was the responsibility of local authorities and it was 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.

In other words, according to one angry councillor, it’s a case of the Edinburgh government passing the buck to the local councils.