The number of potholes on Dundee’s roads is expected to rise as the council plans a dramatic cut to its resurfacing budget.
The local authority has confirmed it plans to resurface just 1% of the city’s road network annually from next year.
It is part of wider plans to make £45m in budget savings in the next four years.
It’s despite the city council’s record on such repairs being already well below the Scottish average.
The jarring news for the city’s drivers was revealed in data given by the city council to two West End councillors acting on numerous complaints from local residents.
The council’s roads and pavements capital plan would see a cut of £370k cut next year.
The councillors say the problem lies in a lack of funding at local and national levels.
‘Funding level inadequate’
West End Liberal Democrat councillor, Michael Crichton, said: “We get many complaints about the state of many of Dundee’s roads and pavements and we feel that roads staff do as good a job as they possibly can with the funding made available by the council.
“The bottom line, however, is that the funding level is simply inadequate and with further cuts likely to come, the situation can only get worse.”
The numbers were provided by the roads maintenance partnership, an alliance between Dundee City Council and Tayside Contracts that manages the council’s 550km road network.
The average percentage of roads resurfaced in a year across all council areas in Scotland is currently 2.53% — with Dundee’s currently much lower at 1.88%.
‘Council voted increase down’
Mr Crichton’s Liberal-Democrat colleague, Fraser Macpherson said: “Earlier this year at the council budget, the Liberal Democrats proposed an £3 million increase in funding for the Roads Maintenance Partnership – £1m more for winter maintenance spending and £2m more for pavements and roads improvements in Dundee.”
He continued: “The other parties unfortunately voted this down but we will continue to argue for and propose increased funding for better pavements and roads in Dundee.
“If that’s not done, the situation going forward is very grave, with a completely inadequate resurfacing regime meaning poorer conditioned roads and pavements and more patching up rather than proper resurfacing. It is a serious situation.”
‘Failure of Scottish government’
Mr Crichton added: “This underlines the failure of Scottish Government to properly fund local authorities – councils have received a disproportionate unfair share of public sector funding cuts.
“This is having real and very negative effects on the provision of council services and roads and pavements condition is just one of the many impacts of these cuts.”
In May, Scottish government Finance Minister, Kate Forbes laid out spending plans that froze council budgets for the next four years.
Ms Forbes said money is prioritised for health and social care, education and tackling climate change. She added that this was due to UK Government budget decisions taken that decided the block grant for the Scottish Government.
Dundee City Council did not respond to a request for comment.
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