Revealed today (9th June) by Transform Scotland, the study found that 84% of respondents favoured road repairs, with only 7% disagreeing.
With Audit Scotland having reported the cost of getting all of Scotland's existing road network into good repair at around £2.25bn, just a quarter of the £9 billion the Scottish Government has committed to spend on new roads, Transform Scotland has launched its “Fix It First” campaign to gather public support for that aim.
Phil Matthews, chair of Transform Scotland, said: ‘This survey clearly demonstrates that the vast majority of the Scottish public want the Scottish Government to prioritise repairing and maintaining our existing roads over building new ones. The people of Scotland want the Scottish Government to “Fix It First”.
Saying that Scottish roads are considered to be amongst the worst in the UK, Matthews continued: ‘Over the last five years, while the Scottish Government has increased the roads budget by 40%, there has been an ongoing failure to tackle the road maintenance backlog. That's just not good enough. And the current financial settlement has led to Scottish Local Authorities not having the funds available to repair and maintain roads. It's time the Scottish Government stepped in to fund these repairs and maintenance, which would bring benefit to individuals and businesses alike. It's a mystery why the Scottish Government hasn't already done so.
‘There is obviously no shortage of money in the Scottish Government’s road infrastructure budget, the problem is it's all directed to build new roads instead of repairing and maintaining the ones we've already got.’
