Scotland Road Maintenance Funding Reduction

ongoing

A new report on Scottish local authority finances has found that continued budget restriction has resulted in a 20% reduction in spending on road maintenance. The research was compiled by the Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) that brings together annual data on Scottish councils’ performance. The significant fall underlines the problem of ongoing cuts to local government funding that are forcing councils to raid highway budgets in order to fund their social care responsibilities. The latest findings follow calculations from the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS) that the existing backlog of repairs to Scotland’s road networks is valued at £1.6bn. Despite the drop in funding, the LGBF report found a “slight improvement” in the overall condition of Scottish roads. Over the last year, C class and unclassified roads have improved, B roads have remained constant, and ‘A’ roads continue to decline. This is attributed to improvements in efficiency and innovation.