Fife’s Liberal Democrats are warning the kingdom’s pothole problem will get bigger, like the potholes themselves.
The party suggested an extra £10 million investment based on “prudential borrowing” in its proposed council budget this year.
Fife’s expenditure per kilometre of road was £11,231 in 2016/17, a drop of nearly 40% from 2012/13.
In October an online insurer carried out an FoI request on potholes and Fife was dubbed the well-cratered kingdom, according to the party.
The number reported was 29,188, second only to Edinburgh.
Audit Scotland reported on the country’s roads in 2016 when only 66% of Fife’s roads were judged to be in an acceptable condition.
Its transport spokeswoman Jane Ann Liston said: “On top of the deterioration that we can see, we are concerned about what we cannot see.”
She cited Audit Scotland’s report that surveys don’t always pick up damage to lower road layers, adding: “There are hidden problems.”
Councillor Jonny Tepp added the official road survey standards only recognise potholes greater than 40mm.
“This is no good for two wheeled vehicles where smaller potholes can be life threatening.
“And yet our survey methods intentionally don’t pick up these faults.
“They don’t record these faults, they don’t act on these faults, and they won’t pay compensation on these faults – if you can find the compensation claim form that is.”
He claimed that providing the council provides evidence it has stuck to its standard regime, there was no chance of compensation for vehicle damage.
Liberal Democrat group leader Tim Brett said: “We don’t need to see official statistics or reports to tell us there is a growing problem.
“We experience it on a daily basis and so do the 99% of residents who travel on the roads of Fife every day.”
Fife Council tansportation spokesman, Labour councillor Altany Craik, said the local authority had been busy dealing with a large number of potholes which had appeared as a result of the recent bad weather.
Since the beast from the east hit around 4,500 potholes had been repaired by the roads team.
Road inspectors have been inspecting the damage and initially there were up to 14 pothole repair teams allocated to tackle the backlog. He said Fife had had more than double the number of potholes following the storms compared to the same period last year.
