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15,000 road defects

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By Fiona Reid
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15,000 road defects

HIT squads are being lined up to fix Dumfries and Galloway’s failing roads after 15,000 defects were identified.

The surface improvement teams will deal with the £3 million backlog of repairs around the region.

And they will undertake first time, permanent mends at hotspot locations, at a cost of at least £200 a time.

Officials hope it will allow the local authority to get back to a manageable level of roads maintenance.

A new council report lays bare the extent of the problems on the region’s roads – and what investment is now needed.

It reveals that 47.4 per cent of the local public roads network, equivalent to 1978 kilometres, ‘should be considered for maintenance treatment’.

Officers want councillors to agree to extra funding over the next three years to help sort out the issue.

If that happens, they say: “The current surface defects will also be addressed; the performance will be significantly improved; and the customer satisfaction level will be greatly improved and savings will be made in insurance claims.”

Writing in the report, which will go before councillors next week, roads construction manager Mike Fawkes said: “At present around 15,000 surface defects are identified from roads inspection work and from information provided by elected members and the general public. The roads service is only able to deal with 40 per cent of the surface defects each year.”

  • Full story in this week’s papers