On June 18th, the environment, development and Infrastructure Committee agreed that the remaining £900,000 unallocated funds need to be retained as a contingency for current schemes in this year’s programme.

At the end of 2026, any funding that has remained will be carried forward into the 2027/2028 roads reconstruction programme.

The £12 million available for the roads’ programme remains the biggest budget for many years and focuses on delivering an improvement to road conditions. 

Some of the pre-surface dressing preparation work has already been carried out, in Mid Argyll, Kintyre, and Mull, some overlay surfacing work on Bute has already been delivered. The remaining work is scheduled to go ahead during the summer months. 

A £1m programme of road surfacing and drainage work has commenced on Islay and Jura. 

Councillor John Armour, policy lead for Roads, Transport and Amenity Services, said: “We find ourselves in a disappointing situation. Our plan was to ask local elected members what schemes their communities would like progressed using the unallocated £900,000. Now we face something like a 10% increase in costs because of the Gulf crisis. 

“However, we continue to move forward with our planned programme. Work is progressing and we ask our communities for patience while our workers and contractors are carrying out the improvements on our network.”