Meeting of the Parliament 09 May 2018
I would have been absolutely delighted if the people of Renfrewshire were 100 per cent happy with the state of their roads, but judging from the scale and volume of the casework that I get in my inbox from Renfrewshire, I can assure Tom Arthur that that is not the case. However, it is great to see that Rachael Hamilton’s debate has spurred Renfrewshire Council into action on the issue, at long last.
The truth is that all around Scotland—not just in Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire or the other constituencies that we will hear about this afternoon—roads are deteriorating. They are flooding and are full of cracks and potholes. Every week, all members must surely in their inboxes see complaints not just from drivers who have had to replace tyres, bumpers and suspension, but from cyclists and motorcyclists who are struggling to use our roads, and from pedestrians, wheelchair users and people who use mobility scooters. The issue touches anybody who uses our roads.
To give the matter scale, I point out that drivers lodged complaints about a road in Scotland every three minutes last winter. Depending on whom one asks, it is estimated that up to one third of our roads are in need of some form of repair. That is more than 4,771 miles of road that need to be fixed.
As Rachael Hamilton said, there are more than 154,000 potholes in Scotland. Councils have been struggling with that. Rather than spending money on fixing the roads, they are paying out compensation. It seems that they are stuck in a rotational situation that is hard to get out of. Repayments for damage have increased by 130 per cent since 2013. It is a chronic issue and it is caused not just by the weather, but by the roads being left to get worse year after year.
The problem is not only in one part of Scotland, but how bad the roads are varies depending where one lives. For example, in West Lothian, it is estimated that about 20 per cent of roads are in need of repair, but the figure could be up to 45 per cent in Argyll and Bute. As is so often the case, rural roads are the last to be addressed.
I recently ran—perhaps to my regret—a social media campaign asking people to post pictures of, or comments about, potholes in North Ayrshire. The Facebook post attracted 500 comments in a week—the most I have ever had on any post, even constitutional posts—and it reached more than 50,000 people, which struck me. Many people from across my area posted pictures and comments on specific roads that they wanted me to go and have a look at.
Road-maintenance funding has been reduced by approximately 20 per cent. According to the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland, the cost for fixing it all is estimated to be up to £1.6 billion, and I do not think for a minute that the minister has that sort of money kicking around or up his sleeve. The reality is, however, that many councils simply do not have enough cash to resurface roads.
The problem is not limited to council roads. We know that trunk roads and motorways are also suffering, and more than a tenth of Scotland’s trunk roads are showing damage. I am keen to hear what the minister will do to address that.
There are ways of fixing the situation. We could use technology better. Self-healing asphalt has been talked about and has been used in some countries for more than a decade. However, the piecemeal approach of just filling in holes rather than looking at long-term funding solutions and structures is not the way forward.
Drivers are sick of listening to politicians from all levels of government saying, “That road isn’t my responsibility; it’s someone else’s.” Drivers say enough is enough, and so do I.
17:21