The Scottish Conservatives have launched a national pothole campaign, ‘Save Our Roads’, to raise awareness of the decaying state of Scotland’s roads and bring the issue into the national agenda.
The campaign is being led by its Holyrood transport spokesman Jamie Greene MSP, who is calling for a £100 million Pothole Action Fund to be established to help tackle the growing problem.
Over the last seven years, central road maintenance funding from the Scottish Government has been cut by 20% leading to a surge in potholes and flooding on Scottish roads. The situation has been described as “untenable” by the Scottish Conservatives.
Scotland has 154,000 potholes, more than any single English region and more than Wales, Northern Ireland, the East Midlands and South East London combined.
This has caused compensation claims against local authorities to surge by £2 million over the last decade.
Lothian MSP Miles Briggs said: “The state of potholes across Lothian is staggering and this fund would go a long way to repairing the thousands of potholes across the region. The state of disrepair on our roads has got out of hand and it is the Scottish Conservatives who are prepared to do something about it.”
The city council has paid out over £240,000 in compensation claims since 2007.
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