| Dundee City Council is about to embark on an inspection of the city’s roads network, which is thought to be as badly affected as anywhere in the country.
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said it will meet member councils before making the case for government intervention.
Winter maintenance budgets have been stretched to the limits by the prolonged icy period, which has called for expenditure on labour and materials such as grit and salt far beyond anything that might have been expected.
In some cases, councils have already started raiding other departmental budgets to find the cash to keep traffic moving.
Although damage is caused to road surfaces every winter by water freezing and expanding in cracks and crevices, the problem is worse this year due to the extremely low temperatures.
This has left councils with a considerable backlog of maintenance work that won’t be properly tackled until the spring.
Until then, potholes and damaged surfaces will receive stop-gap repairs.
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said, “We will be inspecting the roads system to make an assessment within the next week or so. This is part of the regular cycle of inspections. Once that has been completed, there will be the need to draw up a programme of repair and maintenance work.”
The damage isn’t confined to roads — pavements across Dundee have also suffered.
A Tele reader, visiting an elderly friend in Kenmore Terrace, said there was a “crack like the San Andreas fault” along the pavement.
“It must be about 20 feet long and is just like a crevice. It looks very dangerous and I’d think the council would want to do something about it as a priority.”
All councils have to set aside cash for winter maintenance and this is expected to last until the end of the financial year in March. But some councils have already exhausted these funds.
Scottish councils are understood to have set aside about £40m for winter maintenance but are facing a collective bill that could be as high as £100m. |
