Dundee should follow Glasgow’s example when it comes to maintaining and fixing its roads, a city councillor has said.
West End representative Fraser Macpherson has called on the administration to “properly” fund pothole repair, and hailed Glasgow City Council’s commitment to spend an extra £8 million on road maintenance as the solution to Dundee’s problems.
He said: “Locally, like other Dundee councillors I’m sure, I get many requests from constituents for the council to tackle potholes on local roads – a recent example being the poor roads surface in parts of Blackness Road – but there are many other examples.
“The council’s roads maintenance partnership does a good job with the funding available to it, but not enough priority is being given to this important issue in terms of budgetary provision.
“In the 2016-17 council budget discussion, the SNP administration cut the roads budget by £431 000.
“My alternative budget would have resulted in £87,165 in additional roads expenditure over and above the administration’s budget.
“Given the poor state of many pavements and roads in Dundee, a step change in expenditure level in this area is now required and Dundee should follow Glasgow’s lead.”
Councillor Willie Sawers, depute convener of the council’s policy and resources committee, said the council had made more than 80 “prioritised repairs” to the city’s road as part of the 2015/16 Annual Roads Maintenance Programme.
He said: “It is easy to pick one important issue and isolate it by calling for additional resources to be invested.
“However in this case more money has been put into the city’s road network during 2015/16 as part of the annual roads maintenance programme with prioritised repairs and improvements being made at more than 80 different locations.
“It is the difficult task of the administration and council officers to look across the whole range of vital services the council provides, from schooling to protecting older people and from reducing the attainment gap to creating a more equal Dundee.
“We are currently in detailed discussions about the 2017/18 budget and balancing all of those important services in line with the needs and desires of communities across the city before the budget is set in February.”
Glasgow City Council will spend £16 million fixing its roads and walkways over the next financial year, after agreeing to spend an extra £8 million fixing 20,000 potholes.
