Winter weather drains £3m from council

A FURTHER £3 million is to be spent on East Lothian's roads and drainage systems following the severe damage caused to road surfaces last winter.

East Lothian Council will invest the money in road maintenance this financial year, as well as spending 300,000 on two pieces of equipment to carry out the work - a planer which mills and removes road surfaces ready for relaying, and a paver to lay new surfaces.

Council leader Paul McLennan said: "It is important for the local economy and for the safety of our road users that we keep our road network, both urban and rural, in a good state of repair.

"Our transportation staff carried out studies earlier in the year that showed the severe winter weather had hit our roads hard and that if we did not make substantial investment in repairs beyond the 2.5 million originally budgeted, the condition of many of our roads would deteriorate to an unacceptable standard."

The repair programme is expected to be completed by the end of March next year.