Edinburgh's road repairs backlog '˜could take two years to clear'

EDINBURGH's road repairs backlog could take two years to clear, a senior official has warned.

Fixing the Capital's roads could take up to two years, the council's infrastructure service manager has warned. Picture: Jon Savage

Last month it was revealed that only 36 per cent of scheduled prioritised roads projects are expected to be finished by March. There is also a £8.35 million underspend on the council’s capital roads projects – money which remains untouched.

Cliff Hutt, the city council’s infrastructure service manager, said the council was “in effect working a year in arrears” as he pointed out that process means road projects can be held up for months before any work has even started.

He added: “A lot of perception about the state of the roads from the public is to do with potholes – that’s not the capitalised maintenance scheme.

“The more successful the city is, the more works development goes on, the more roadworks you’re going to have. Finding that window to do your major strategic works gets harder and harder year on year.

“Once we get the roads improvement plan into place, we have a service contract and it will take I think two years of having the contract to actually clear the backlog and to ensure we keep on top of the backlog.”

Transport and environment convener, Cllr Lesley Macinnes, said that maintaining Edinburgh’s transport infrastructure is “crucial”, and added: “We recognise that there is work to be done.”