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Crumbling road fears as pothole bill hits £1.7bn

Pothole repairs on Scotland’s roads are said to cost nearly £1.7 billion to repair.

Figures were obtained from local authorities via a freedom of information request and suggest the council’s repair backlog is in the hundreds of millions of pounds.

Data suggests £1.68 billion in taxpayer money would be needed to fix Scottish roads.

Labor has accused the Scottish Government of allowing roads to fall into disrepair.

Dumfries and Galloway Council had the highest backlog of repair bills, with a bill of just over £217million.

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According to the data, Highland Council had a backlog worth more than £194million and Argyll and Bute Council one worth £112million.

Six local authorities did not disclose the extent of their road repair backlog, including East Lothian, Renfrewshire and Aberdeen City.

Edinburgh City Council had a repair backlog worth just over £77m, according to the data, while Glasgow City Council had one worth £96m.

Neil Bibby, Scottish Labor transport spokesman, said the “staggering figures reveal the terrible state of disrepair that Scotland’s roads are in after years of neglect”.

But the Scottish Government said funding from local government had run out and the upkeep of local roads was the responsibility of councils.

Mr Bibby, MSP for West of Scotland, said the Scottish Government had “cut funding to the bone, leaving the roads crumbling and taxpayers footing the bill”.

“Our potholed roads are a daily reminder of how much the SNP has failed the communities around us,” he said.

“Now the Greens and the SNP have joined forces to hit councils with another year of brutal cuts, it’s only going to get worse.

“The SNP needs to stop burying their heads in the sand and show some leadership to deal with the mess they’ve created.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Despite the continued economic uncertainty we are all facing due to the pandemic, we are treating councils fairly and offering local authorities’ budgets for the coming year a 6.3% real increase in conditions – despite cuts of the Scottish budget by the UK Government”.

“The budget sees nearly $12.7 billion in local government revenue undisclosed,” the spokesman said.

He added that maintaining the local road network is the responsibility of local authorities and it is the responsibility of individual councils to manage their own budgets and allocate all the financial resources at their disposal based on local needs and priorities .

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