Welcome improvements to roads

The general condition of roads in the Stirling Council area is improving according to a 2011 Audit Scotland Report.

The Council has welcomed the results of the annual national survey, which sees Stirling move-up the league table of Scottish Councils to rank 22nd out 32.

Stirling Council’s Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Environment Councillor Jim Thomson on welcoming the improving picture said: “This is a move in the right direction and demonstrates that the additional roads maintenance investment by this Administration to improve the state of our roads is having a positive effect.  However, we are under no illusions, there is still a lot to do and this will require many years of continued investment, which we are determined to deliver.”

Repairs to roads on the 1011km of road network in the Stirling area is carried out on a priority basis with the busiest roads in the worst condition being repaired first.  By continuing to apply this methodology, resources have been directed towards the routes with the greatest potential for accidents, public liability insurance claims and requests for service.

The Council’s roads maintenance investment for last year 2011/12 amounted to £7.471M, which included an additional one-off contribution from Scottish Government of £326K to deal with frost damage to carriageways and footways.  The revenue budget for roads maintenance in 2010/11 was to £2.498M.  This is supplemented by a core capital allocation of £4.647M for maintaining carriageways and footways

The Council is continuing to deal with the aftermath from the December 2010 to February 2011 winter, which saw the coldest winter temperatures since records began 120 years ago.  These very cold temperatures, persisting for a long period of time, resulted in the acceleration of the deterioration of road and footway surfaces and sub structures. 

Notes to Editor:

The annual Scottish Road maintenance Condition Survey (SRMCS) assess the condition of the entire Scottish Local Authority road network and used to calculate the Road Condition Index (RCI) used by Audit Scotland as a Statutory Performance Indicator (SPI) for reporting and comparing carriageway condition across Scotland.

Audit Scotland produces a league table to compare RCI across all Scottish Councils.