'Damning' £2.5bn pothole repair backlog as the worst Scottish councils revealed

The Scottish councils with the highest backlog estimate for road repairs have been revealed

The backlog of repairs on local roads across Scottish councils could cost more than £2.5 billion, according to data obtained by Scottish Labour.

The party sent Freedom of Information requests to all of Scotland’s local authorities asking for the estimated cost of their road repair backlog. With 28 out of 32 providing figures, the total bill was £2,562,057,538. This is up from the figure obtained by Labour in 2022, when the total bill was more than £1.7bn.

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In the latest figures, East Dunbartonshire had the highest estimate for repair costs at £598,454,000. Dumfries and Galloway had the second highest bill at £253,471,000. In the Highlands, the figure was £233,631,000.

Scottish Labour transport spokesman Alex Rowley said: “Under the SNP, Scotland’s roads have been left to crumble and drivers are paying the price. Scotland’s pothole-ridden roads are a damning symbol of SNP failure and a daily reminder of how badly this Government has hollowed out council budgets.

“The SNP must end the brutal cuts to councils and deliver for the communities across Scotland being so badly let down by this out-of-touch SNP Government.”

But investment minister Tom Arthur hit out at the Labour UK government’s announcement of cuts to tackle a £22bn black hole Chancellor Rachel Reeves said had been “covered up” by the previous government.

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“Just this week, the UK Labour Government announced £22bn of cuts to public spending that will see millions wiped from the Scottish Government’s budget to deliver key services,” he said.

“With no sense of irony, the Labour Party are now making spending demands despite so far failing to inform the Scottish Government on the full extent this latest wave of austerity will have on Scotland’s budget.

“In these challenging times, people rightly expect serious discussion and co-operation between political parties – it’s time for Labour in Scotland to step up to the plate.”

Research published in January based on data collected by SmartSurvey had revealed Glasgow was Britain's pothole capital - but that Edinburgh was giving Scotland’s biggest city a run for its money.

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Covering 69 cities across England, Scotland and Wales, the researchers found Glasgow came top of the list by a substantial amount, with one reported pothole for every 86 Glaswegians and a 24.25 per cent fix rate.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the M8, Edinburgh took an unwanted second spot, with 8.2 potholes unfixed per 1,000 residents.

And the Scottish capital was actually worse than Glasgow when it came to pothole fix rates, with the 22.25 per cent of repairs the second worst rate in Britain after Manchester (19.18 per cent).

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