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Scottish roads need E1.7bn
Page 10
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A THIRD OF all A-roads in Scotland are in a poor state of repair. according to government spending watchdogs. Audit Scotland. which monitors local and central government spending,says£1.7bn of investment is needed to clear the growing maintenance backlog across the road network.
Local authorities are said to be the worst offenders, spending less on maintenance than they did 10 years ago even though traffic has increased by 18%.
In East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Inverclyde and Stirling, more than 20% of roads are said to require substantial repairs to prolong their life. But 90% of motorways and trunk roads are up to scratch, says the report. These are the responsibility of the Scottish Executive and are maintained by private contractors. Carl Olufsen, chairman of the Freight Transport Association's Scottish council, says for hauliers, the A77 to the ferry terminals at Stranraer and Cairnryan is among the worst A-roads: "Repairs tend to be patch-up work but the road is very heavily used by operators because of the services to Northern Ireland."
He adds that the prospect of proper repairs seems slim because transport is not a high political priority.
Fergus Ewing, the Scottish National Party's transport spokesman, says the Scottish Executive should ensure all councils have a long-term strategy to tackle the backlog: "With less money being spent than there was 10 years ago, it is little wonder that we are plagued by problems such as potholes and poorly marked roads." FUEL PRICES in the UK's most northerly islands of Orkney and Shetland have gone through the barrier this month and the islands' MP is calling for special measures to help ease the problem.
Alistair Carmichael MP has long argued that the islands deserve the same sort of assistance as Greece and Portugal, where a derogation from the EU allows a variable rate of fuel duty — he hopes that crossing the £1/lit barrier might at least help highlight the problem. Diesel prices in the islands are as much as 15p/lit higher than in London.
Operators in the islands agree that fuel costs are unfairly high, but many manage to cushion themselves from the problem by buying much of their fuel on the mainland.
Murray Prentice, MD of Jim Brackenridge Transport, which has a depot on Orkney, says:"We have to buy some fuel up there but because we are bringing goods up from the south of England much of it is bought on the way, so mostly we are not paying higher prices."
But Prentice stresses that the fuel costs are "very unfair"; he would like to see a standard national price for diesel: "This is something which has been an issue for years but it would be nice to think that someone was going to do something about it."