Major concerns have been raised about Scotland’s crumbling roads as figures show the bill to repair them has risen to a staggering £2.5 billion.
Massive upgrades are needed across the country to fix perilous roads littered by potholes and the estimated cost to the taxpayer to carry out the repair backlog now stands at £2,562,057,538, according to data collected from local authorities by Scottish Labour.
The party’s transport spokesman Alex Rowley said: ‘Under the SNP, Scotland’s roads have been left to crumble and drivers are paying the price.
‘Scotland’s pothole-ridden roads are a damning symbol of SNP failure and a daily reminder of how badly this government has hollowed out council budgets.
‘The SNP must end the brutal cuts to councils and deliver for the communities across Scotland being so badly let down by this out-of-touch SNP government.’
Scotland’s roads are riddled with potholes
Brian Gregory, policy director of the Alliance of British Drivers, said: ‘This bill is symptomatic of the view that government has over road users – that drivers can be financially bled dry for no return.’
Neil Greig, director of policy and research at IAM RoadSmart, said: ‘These figures are truly shocking and underline the urgent need for a long-term plan to address the rapidly growing pothole backlog.
‘Only by ringfencing adequate funds from motoring taxes can we hope to see any real progress.’
He added: ‘The continued focus on short-term patching is just adding to the final bill. For cyclists and motorcyclists, uneven roads are a life-or-death issue.’
In June, The Mail on Sunday told how councils across Scotland had recorded more than 100,000 potholes in less than a year, between April 2023 and February this year.
Research commissioned by insurance comparison site Confused.com found councils had to pay out about £411,000 in compensation claims to drivers of vehicles damaged as a result of poor roads last year.
The worst offender for potholes was Great Western Road in Glasgow, with 1,451 reported in 2023.
A SmartSurvey report in February named Glasgow as the pothole capital of the UK.
According to the latest repair bill statistics, the worst backlog for major works is in East Dunbartonshire.
To fix all the roads there would cost an estimated £598.4 million.
The second worst affected area is Dumfries and Galloway, whose backlog of repairs would cost £253.4 million to fix.
Four of the country’s 32 councils failed to provide figures when asked under freedom of information laws, so the true scale of the repair bill will probably be even higher.
In total, the bill has skyrocketed from £1.8 billion in 2022, a 36 per cent increase in just 24 months.
Scottish Employment and Investment Minister Tom Arthur said: ‘Just this week, the UK Labour government announced £22 billion of cuts to public spending that will see millions wiped from the Scottish Government’s budget to deliver key services.’
