CALLS have been made for the Scottish Government to invest more in Clackmannanshire’s roads, after figures revealed that it would cost more than £11million to repair potholes in the Wee County.

Information received through an FOI has revealed that nationwide pothole repairs would cost the Scottish Government £2.6billion.

Four local authorities did not release their data, which means that the figure would be even higher for the whole country.

These figures were highlighted by Alex Rowley, MSP and Scottish Labour transport spokesperson, who said: “Under the SNP, Scotland’s roads have been left to crumble and drivers are paying the price.

“The cost for fixing the backlog of repairs in Clackmannanshire has increased by £3.5m and now sits at a staggering £11m.

“Councils are struggling with massive levels of underfunding from the Scottish Government and the continued hollowing out council budgets is completely unacceptable.”

As per the findings, the Clacks repair cost sits at £11m, which is a rise of £3.5m in the last two years.

While the repair work responsibility sits with councils, Mr Rowley insists that councils are powerless to act due to tight budget cuts imposed by the Scottish Government.

He continued: “My office gets regular contact from constituents regarding the state of roads and when I raise this with ministers they point the finger at councils but fail to acknowledge they have cut the council budgets to the bone.

“I am urging ministers to work with councils to develop a funded approach to fixing our broken roads infrastructure.

“I continue to urge all road users in Clacks to report any potholes they come across.

“It is much more difficult to claim compensation for a pothole causing damage if it has not already been reported as local authorities can claim they were unaware of the issue.”

The Advertiser approached the Scottish Government to ask if they had plans to work through the repair backlog.

They confirmed that the responsibility lay with local councils, but that they had invested more than £10bn to support Scotland’s infrastructure.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “Maintenance of the local road network is the responsibility of local authorities and it is up to individual local authorities to manage their day to day decision making and allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.

“We recognise the crucial role councils and their employees play in communities across Scotland.

“That’s why, this year, the Scottish Government has made available over £14bn to local councils – a real-terms increase of 2.5 per cent compared with the previous year.

“This year, Clackmannanshire Council will receive £126m."

The Advertiser contacted Clackmannanshire Council to enquire about the public funds budget.

The council confirmed that a very large pot of money has been set aside for road repairs, which are currently ongoing.

A spokesperson for the council said: " The council has a statutory duty to manage and maintain over 293km of public roads in Clackmannanshire.  

"In the current fiscal year we have programmed works to the value of £1.95m, on road repairs throughout the council area.

"Our road asset safety inspection strategy aims to ensure that safety inspections identify and rectify hazardous defects on public roads in the relevant response time, in line with best practice and council policy.

"Residents who notice defects in the road can also report these using our online Report It system so that these can be investigated and appropriate action taken.”

Anyone wishing to report a pothole in Clackmannanshire can do so by calling the help desk on 01259 450000.

Alternatively, a complaint form can be filled out at clacks.gov.uk/council/reportit.