£70m needed to fix city roads

MORE than £70 million needs to be spent to bring Edinburgh's worn-out roads and pavements up to scratch, a leaked council report has warned.

The Evening News obtained a copy of a survey by city council officials which reveals a huge backlog of repairs, ranging from potholed roads to cracked paving slabs.

The report says that around 260 road or pavement improvements are set to be carried out in the next year, but hundreds more are still outstanding.

Spending on roads and pavement renewals in Edinburgh has increased four-fold over the last four years and currently stands at 16m per annum.

However, critics argue that the repairs have been chronically underfunded for years and still have a long way to recover judging by the latest council survey. It puts the total cost of clearing the backlog at 70.45m.

Councillor Mark McInnes, the city's Tory transport spokesman, said: "This really doesn't surprise me as this is what we have been saying for the last 20 years and vindicates criticism of the last Labour administration, who simply weren't interested in sorting this out.

"The problems this has caused over the years will be well known to anyone who has used the city's streets or pavements in recent years.

"This 70m figure illustrates just how much work is needed to get our city up to scratch. A lot of it is basic repairs and the money needs to be found."

A council survey of householders in spring 2007 found that just over half of residents were satisfied with road maintenance in the city. Two years ago, an Audit Scotland report revealed that Edinburgh's roads were among the worst in the whole country.

It found that 56 per cent of the city's roads were in need of maintenance. The figures placed Edinburgh in third spot, behind Inverclyde and East Renfrewshire.

However, the performance of the city's roads department has improved in recent years with 98.5 per cent of priority defects fixed within three working days – compared to just 70.7 per cent in 2005/06.

Tina Woolnough, spokeswoman for the Edinburgh Traffic Forum, said: "It is a pretty shocking figure but not surprising as it has been well known that these sorts of repairs have not been given the priority they deserve. At the last election all of the parties gave big promises that they would increase investment on roads and pavements and we will have to see if that comes true because there is a lot of catching up to do."

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's environment leader, said: "We foresee the council investing 65m to improve roads and pavements between 2007 and 2010. Undoubtedly there has been a backlog of neglect.

"It is clearly evident from this proposal that the administration is committed to making substantial investment to bring our previously neglected roads and pavements up to the standards we should expect. Figures published this year show that the number of roads needing repaired in the Capital is falling, and there has been extremely positive feedback from the public about our planned local road repairs programme."

Former Labour transport leader Ricky Henderson defended Labour's policy, saying they concentrated funds on more important issues. He said: "In the last three years we actually spent record amounts on improving and maintaining the fabric of the pavements. Prior to that we took the decision to prioritise spending on schools, health and social care and we make no apologies for that. It is typical of the Tories to try and make capital out of that."