By Steve Bargeton, political editor

A STAGGERING 4500 miles of Scottish roads are in need of repair and it would cost more than the entire national transport budget to fix it.

That was the conclusion of a damning report into a massive backlog of road maintenance out today that spells road traffic chaos for motorists for decades.

Audit Scotland say that 13% of the entire road network north of the border needs to be repaired and that it will cost £1.7 billion—more than the Scottish Executive’s transport budget of £1.4 billion.

The report found that while almost 90% of motorways and dual carriageways are up to standard, a third of all A roads and half the country’s B roads are in an unacceptable condition.

Overall, only a little over half the roads in Tayside and Fife were considered to be acceptable.

In Dundee just 53% of roads were given the green light, 54% in Fife, 55.3% in Perth and Kinross and 65% in Angus.

The report found that more than 20% of roads in Edinburgh and Stirling “have deteriorated to a point where repairs are needed to prolong their life.”

Audit Scotland estimate that £1.5 billion needs to be spent on council-maintained roads and a further £232 million on motorways and trunk roads.

The report lays the blame for the poor state of Scottish roads on local councils which are spending less on maintenance today than they did 10 years ago despite a huge increase in traffic.

“Over the last 10 years there has been an 18% increase in the volume of traffic and 27% increase in the number of cars on the road,” says the report.

“Despite this, councils currently spend less on maintenance than they did 10 years ago and this has resulted in a reduction in structural maintenance and a maintenance backlog.”

The reports says that in order for councils to manage their roads properly they need better IT systems and better information on the condition of the assets they are managing, not just the roads but footways, bridges, lighting, safety barriers, drainage and all the other assets associated with the road network.

“When councils make decisions about road maintenance they have to balance a range of statutory duties and public expectations,” said Accounts Commission chairman Alastair MacNish.

“Because of a reduction in the amount spent over the last decade, councils have focused on winter maintenance and routine repairs such as fixing potholes, and have not spent enough on structural repairs which are needed to extend the life of roads.

“As a result, there is now a substantial backlog of structural maintenance. Councils need to take action to bring their roads up to standard but there are no quick fixes to this problem.”

“They need to develop long-term solutions to clear the backlog and continue to invest in structural repairs,” continued Mr MacNish.

“This will prevent roads from deteriorating to the point where they are unsafe or need expensive reconstruction and will save money in the long run.”

Scottish Tory transport spokesman David Mundell said, “The complete lack of long-term planning by our councils and their habit of waiting until something is broken to take action is typical of their mismanagement.

“It seems pretty clear that in the last five years the Executive and Labour local authorities have allowed Scotland’s roads network to crumble into disarray and that they are sticking to the crawler lane when it comes to taking action.”

SNP transport spokes- man Fergus Ewing said, “It is a grave indictment of negligence that the Scottish Executive has allowed the state of Scotland’s roads to slip to such a low level.

“Unless action is taken we will continue to play catch- up, with our roads continuing to deteriorate faster than repairs are being carried out.

“Over 40% of all roads in Scotland are not in an acceptable condition and the worst thing is, that with less money being spent on maintenance than there was 10 years ago it is little wonder that we are plagued by problems such as potholes and poorly marked roads,” he added.