A cash pay-out of £813,000 from the Scottish Government is expected to go some way to alleviating Fife’s problems with potholes.
The windfall is still expected to fall well short of what is required for Fife’s roads, with the region expecting to have spent more than double what it did last year on winter maintenance in total.
The £813,000 is Fife’s share of the £15 million in extra funding the Scottish Government has made available for councils three times last year’s level to deal with urgent repairs on local roads and cover the extra costs of winter roads maintenance.
However, Fife has confirmed it has already spent more than the £3 million it set aside for winter gritting and snow clearing so far this year, and is anticipating a projected total winter spend of from £6 million to anything up to £7.5 million by the end of the financial year.
Dr Bob McLellan, Fife Council’s head of transportation services, said the council has a “robust” inspection regime on roads, and the council deals with potholes on a priority basis.
“We repair around 26,000 potholes annually and since April 2010 all of those classified as emergencies have been repaired the same day,” he said.
“Of the potholes which weren’t classed as emergencies, 92% were fixed within our target time of five days.
“Last year we spent £1.5 million on pothole repairs and due to the last two severe winters, which have seen the worst weather in 30 years or more, we expect to spend the same figure or slightly more this year.Budget exceeded”Our complete 2010-11 budget for winter gritting and snow clearing is £3 million.
“We’ve already exceeded that, but the council is making provisions for a projected total winter spend of £6.5-7.5 million, which will include repairing potholes.”
Figures confirmed yesterday suggested the number of potholes reported between December 1 and January 11 were not as high as the same period last year, with 1409 reported this year compared to 1870 during the 2009-10 cold snap.
That is also down on the 1497 reported in the same period in 2008-9.
However, a Fife Council spokesman said the authority expects the annual totals to exceed previous years as reports come in.
The amount of snow and ice still on the ground during the December-January timescale looked at is also likely to have meant others had not been identified.
People have been asked to report major potholes either via the FifeDirect website at www.fifedirect.org.uk/winter or by calling 08451 55 00 11.
Finance secretary John Swinney said, “Scotland has just experienced its coldest December in 100 years and thousands of people have worked extremely hard over the last couple of months to keep our roads passable.
“Fife Council, which looks after local roads, now has to deal with the problem of potholes and the exceptional costs of the extra roads maintenance needed this winter.
“Overall the money we are providing is three times last year’s amount and I believe the severity of the conditions faced by all councils merits an increase of that size.”