Improvement in roads across East Renfrewshire thanks to additional capital investment
We've seen a 3.7% improvement in our road network, the latest national figures have revealed after an assessment carried out in 2023 was published.
Published: 14 August 2024
Each year, the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey (SRMCS) assesses around 27% of our 487.2km network and a Road Condition Indicator (RCI) is calculated.
Defects in the length of measured roads are marked as either red, amber or green, with those in red and amber expressed as a percentage of the overall network.
A backlog calculation is also produced which estimates the cost to immediately clear all of the red and amber defects reported for an area's RCI.
The latest figures are based on surveys undertaken in 2021 and 2022 for A, B and C Class roads, and the four year average between 2019 and 2022, for residential (unclassified) roads. We received a score of 35.4% for our network which was considered to be red or amber, down from our previous RCI of 39.1% in 2019.
The council's estimated backlog calculation is £27.3m which also marks an improvement of 11.3% on the 2019 figure - despite the overall 2023 backlog figure for all local authorities increasing by 16.3%.
In our 2019/20 budget, we committed an additional £15m capital investment for roads infrastructure enhancements over the following five years with a total of 172 roads and 57 pavements improved during this time.
Starting in 2024/25, a further £17.5m was invested for the next five years, with an additional 51 roads and eight pavements benefiting from funding throughout this financial year alone.
Councillor Danny Devlin, Convener for Environment and Housing, said: 'It's great to hear that the council is continuing to upgrade its road infrastructure year on year. Our roads network is absolutely vital and it's clear that the additional capital investment into our roads and pavements which began in 2019/20 is making a real difference. Our roads are so important to our residents and the council is committed to continuing to make these improvements to our residential roads.'
