Councils reduce roads maintenance spending by 20%

Data contained in the Local Government Benchmarking Framework published by the Improvement Service, found that expenditure on roads has fallen by 20% in real terms, from £691m in 2010/11 to £554m last year.

Despite the sharp fall in road funding over the past seven years, spending by councils has actually increased by 1.6% in the past year as they tackle maintenance backlogs.

Spending on planning services has also been reduced by 33% over the same period, while funding for education, child protection and social care services has been protected.

Research published last year by the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS) suggested that the existing backlog of repairs to Scotland’s road networks was valued at £1.6 billion.

Council umbrella body COSLA said the figures showed that cuts to budgets “have really started to bite” but that local authorities were adapting well to the changes.

The report said total funding for Scottish councils had been cut by 7.6% in real terms since 2010/11, falling from £10.5bn to £9.7bn.

COSLA president Alison Evison said the cuts to local road budgets “will not have gone unnoticed”, adding: “Today’s report shows that the cuts to local government have really started to bite, particularly in the non-statutory services.”