‘Don’t ringfence utility cash for roads’

Local government in Scotland has welcomed Government plans to force utility companies to pay councils an annual sum to reflect the long-term damage their roadworks cause to road surfaces. But the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) has criticised Transport Scotland’s plan to force councils to spend the funds on road maintenance.

Transport Scotland says TRL research suggests that digging up roads leads to a 17% reduction in the life of a road surface. The consultation suggests that utility companies should therefore fund somewhere between 5% and 10% of the £120m that councils spend each year on maintaining local roads.

The funds would be apportioned to local authorities using data from the Scottish Road Works Register and Transport Scotland proposes the funds would have to be spent on road resurfacing. 

But Cosla says restricting how the funding is spent is contrary to government policy of reducing ring-fencing.

“Whilst the proposals for contributions to repair long-term damage are welcome and recognise the subsidy local councils have been providing for many years, the method of receiving these retrospective resource contributions from utility companies must not be diminished by overly burdensome administration and ring-fencing,” George Eckton, Cosla’s chief officer for environment and regeneration,  told councillors this month.

Eckton said councils should be able to spend the money as they wanted.

The consultation, Strategic consultation on works on Scottish roads, proposes a number of other reforms and asks whether Scotland should adopt a permit system and lane rental charges, which have been introduced in England.

The Scottish Road Works Commissioner is not in favour of introducing permitting.

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