WRoad Funding Inadequate

INCREASED FUNDING URGENTLY NEEDED TO MAINTAIN HIGHLAND ROAD
 AND TRANSPORT NETWORK

Highland Councillors have been advised of almost £150 million worth of works that require to be undertaken to repair and maintain roads, bridges and harbours in the area.

Mr Philip Shimmin, Director of Roads and Transport, told members of the Roads Community and Protective Services Committee, that the infrastructure was in a poor and deteriorating state and that funding levels were insufficient to slow the increasing rate of deterioration.

He estimated that £82 million was needed to bring roads up to a reasonable level of repair. He said that, at the current level of funding, it was not clear whether the Council was satisfactorily fulfilling its statutory obligation to manage and maintain the road network.

He feared that unless more money was identified to strengthen forest access roads, the Council might be forced to impose weight and length restrictions on many more roads that at present, with consequent restrictions to the services available to local communities.

The problem of weak bridges and retaining walls continued to be a concern and he estimated that it would cost £55 million to carry out the necessary remedial work.

A further £7 million was required to bring all harbour facilities up to a reasonable state of repair.

Committee Chairman Councillor Charlie King, Mallaig, said the report was a matter of huge concern to the council and the public at large.  He said: "Spending on road and structural maintenance has been halved since 1993 and this has clearly affected our ability to respond to the many needs that confront us. An estimated £6 million per year is required just to stem the
relentless tide of deterioration.  A further £4 million per year would allow the average period between road surfacing to be reduced from today's 200 years to the more realistic, but still not ideal, rate of 40 years that existed five years ago."

The Committee agreed to ask the Council to consider its priorities for spending allocations, directing more money to roads and transport and press the Scottish Executive for increased funding for road maintenance and to introduce a peripheral areas road improvement programme, targeted specifically within the Highlands and Islands.