After raising concerns about the number of outstanding items of routine transportation maintenance facing Fife Council, Tay Bridgehead councillor Tim Brett has expressed disappointment that the council’s transportation spokesman Pat Callaghan did not take up an invite to attend Fife Council’s North East Fife area committee to discuss the situation.
Mr Brett, Lib Dem group leader, said: “More than half my caseload comprises complaints about broken pavements, holes in the roads, faulty streetlights and missing road signs, as well as complaints about speeding traffic and other road safety issues.
“In North East Fife in April there were over 200 outstanding pieces of work not including potholes or defective streetlights.
“The transportation service have said that the backlog has been mainly due to resources being diverted to essential winter maintenance work and, more recently, pothole repairs, but I believe there is also a need for better management to monitor outstanding work and provide feedback to elected members and communities on work that is being undertaken.
“It should surely not take six months to replace a missing road sign. North East Fife is a large geographical area and I have to ask whether we are getting our fair share of resources.
“Unfortunately we are not getting routine performance data to know whether we have a local North East Fife problem or whether these problems are occurring elsewhere.”
Mr Brett welcomed a presentation by Fife Council’s head of transportation, Dr Bob McLellan. Dr McLellan said the service was improving how it actioned problem-solving.
A new app through Fife Direct was a “leap forward” for members of the public being able to report pothole problems and other issues.
He said continued investment in roads was required.