Extra Money to Pave the Way for Better Roads

Most of the roads in Argyll and Bute are not in the best possible state to say the least and the same goes for many roads on Islay. Most of us know the sorry state the A83 is in with its many potholes that can lead to dangerous driving conditions. Some of the roads on Islay are in a sorry state as well, specially those roads that are used by the many lorries supplying the distilleries. The bad road situation was confirmed by a national road condition survey last year which had concluded that Argyll and Bute Council had the highest percentage of roads needing attention of any Scottish local authority. Today the Argyll and Bute council responded with a financial injection to improve the situation. A quote from the press release:

The Council’s Executive Committee took the decision today to accelerate the capital spend on roads in 2009/10 from £4.5million to £6million – a 33% increase. The Council’s spokesperson for Transportation and Infrastructure, Councillor Duncan MacIntyre, said: 'The key performance indicators showed that the condition of our roads network improved by 5.2% between last year and the year before, but we obviously still have some way to go. Roads maintenance is a priority for this Council. Argyll and Bute has nearly 2,500 kilometres of roads, the vast majority of which are A and B classifications, and for several years we have significantly increased the amount of money we spend on maintaining them. Even before the extra £1.5million agreed today, we were spending more than double what was being spent four years ago in this area.

Let's hope some of this money will be spent to improve the roads on Islay or at least the main road to Islay/Kennacraig, the A83.

Tag: roads council a83