The head of Perth and Kinross Council has hit back at criticism of a planned roads maintenance review which could see target times for pothole repairs relaxed.
Under the plan, road defects which currently have to be repaired within 24 hours could be left unattended for up to five days, while lower-risk hazards could go untouched for a month compared to the current goal of seven days.
The proposal, which is part of the biggest review of its kind in more than 20 years, will go before councillors on Wednesday.
It comes weeks after the Tory-led administration announced it was reversing a “nightmare” policy which banned repairs on potholes less than 60mm deep.
SNP MP Pete Wishart criticised the latest bid to relax pothole repair times. “The Tory council need to come clean on the issue of potholes,” he said last week. “Are they pothole crusaders, or all talk?”
Council leader Ian Campbell has responded, insisting that the new plan will actually lead to more potholes being filled.
“My policy of leading an attack on the county’s potholes continues,” he said. “Not only will we fill more potholes but – unlike the last administration – we have asked our teams to do a ‘right first time’ quality job rather than just an easy ‘patch up’ on the more hazardous potholes, which is apparently the method supported by Pete Wishart MP.”
Mr Campbell said: “We all know that some potholes just re-appear in the same place time and time again because a quality job has not been done. We aim to change that. We will still fill more potholes but ensure that more of them are a ‘first time’ fix.
“Mr Wishart’s preferred option appears to be a ‘fill quickly and leave’ approach which we all know does not benefit our roads or reduce the damage to our cars.
“This is probably the reason that under the last administration, pothole numbers rose from 6300 in 2012 to almost 18000 in 2016.”
Environment, enterprise and infrastructure committee convenor Colin Stewart said: “The timescales in the previous policy required the council to do quick ‘patch’ jobs, rather than to fix problems permanently.
“This new policy will allow our roads maintenance team to prioritise work better and get a ‘right first time’ fix in place. That also means that we need to know if we have to come back and repair the same potholes again and again, so I am directing the team to start GPS-mapping their repairs.”
Mr Stewart added: “This will give us information about repeat problem areas, and I’m surprised that no one had asked for this to be done before.”
The proposal has also be criticised by SNP councillor Dave Doogan said: “It is of great concern to see this administration back pedal on their first real commitment to Perth and Kinross communities but I can’t say I’m surprised.
“If this proposal goes ahead, and Labour together with the Lib Dems will almost certainly ensure that it does, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians in Perth and Kinross will have to endure all but the most serious road defects for longer than they would have under the SNP’s administration.”
Mr Doogan said: “If this is the Tories way of bringing our roads ‘up to scratch’ then we should be very concerned for wider council services and whatever the Tories have planned for these.”
