Urgent action is required to improve the condition of highways north of the border, a new study has concluded. Audit Scotland found more than a third of council maintained roads and 13% of the country’s trunk roads to be in an unacceptable condition.

 

Overall council expenditure on local roads maintenance fell by 14% from £302M in 2011/12 to £259M in 2014/15, it said. On average councils spent £33M less on planned and routine maintenance in 2014/15 than the amount needed to maintain current condition.

 

For trunk roads Transport Scotland’s maintenance expenditure fell from £168M to £162M over the three years and the authority spent £24M less (38%) on structural maintenance in 2014/15 than is considered necessary to maintain carriageway condition.

 

The Accounts Commission, the public spending watchdog for local government in Scotland, said the state of local roads is a major concern for the public. Its chair Douglas Sinclair said: “Surveys show that they remain dissatisfied, despite these concerns being flagged up in two previous reports. Their voice needs to be listened to.”

 

Auditor General Caroline Gardner said a well maintained roads network is vital for Scotland’s economic prosperity. “We cannot afford to neglect it. What is needed is a longer term view which takes into account both the need for new roads and the proper maintenance of what we have at present.”

 

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) responded to the report by saying that councils in Scotland had done a good job with less resource in keeping the roads to a decent standard. Councillor Stephen Hagan from COSLA added: “The overall conclusions of this report gloss over a complex picture and imply that councils are not prioritising roads. We reject this inference utterly.

 

“The truth of the matter is that local government faces huge challenges on maintaining or improving road quality, but there are no easy solutions.”

 

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Audit Scotland recognises that the vast majority of the network, 87%, is in an acceptable condition. This has been reflected in our most recent customer survey, where the number of people satisfied with the condition of trunk roads has increased by 5% since last year.

 

“Despite ongoing cuts to our budget by the UK Government the Scottish Government has delivered a fair funding settlement with over £10.3Bn to local authorities in 2016/17. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate resources on the basis of local needs and priorities.

 

“We welcome Audit Scotland’s report and will give the recommendations careful consideration as we go forward with our stakeholders.”

 

(Photo: David Dixon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Common Licence)