MSP asked to explain why Highland Council gets five per cent of roads budget for 12 per cent of roads
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Caithness councillor Matthew Reiss has called on north MSP Maree Todd to look into funding “discrepancies” that he argues have seen Highland Council short-changed and allowed a mountain of 18,000 road complaints to build up.
The revelations are contained in an email exchange between the two that began when Ms Todd tried to refer the council to the Scottish Road Works Commissioner.
She was concerned that almost 80 per cent of Scottish local authorities were outperforming the Highlands, but the commissioner rebuffed the referral. Councillor Reiss described it as an “unfair and misleading comparison”.
He said that is because his own research indicates Highland Council is simply not getting its fair share of roads funding from the Scottish Government.
Writing to Ms Todd, he said public documents highlight how the council “receives approximately five per cent of the allocated capital roads budget from your government but have 12 per cent of local authority roads”.
He worked out that the average Scottish spend per kilometre is £6953, within the so-called “family” of similar rural local authorities it is £3783 and in the Highland Council area it is just £2244.
With almost 6700 kilometres of road, the figures suggest that Highland Council has almost three times less to spend per kilometre of road than similar local authorities.
Councillor Reiss wrote: “May I ask, please, that these apparent discrepancies in funding be urgently checked and assessed by the Scottish Government, hopefully you might include the finance secretary [Kate Forbes], who will understand the concerns in her own Highland constituency.
“I am not an expert in the sometimes complex world of finance and perhaps there are explanations for these genuinely huge variations, however, I repeat the headline figure that we have 12 per cent of Scotland’s council maintained road length but only five per cent of the grant.
“It cannot be fair to compare Highland to much smaller, geographically speaking, local authorities unless we receive, per mile/kilometre, the same funding – we do not.
“The main reason is that the grant is allocated largely on the basis of population, not on length of roads.”
However, Highland Council has still failed to meet the steady state investment threshold – keeping the network no worse or no better than it is. To do that, just over £25 million per year needs to be spent, yet the local authority agreed to spend £22.7 million this year and £20.7 million next year.
Ms Todd, the MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, originally responded to Councillor Reiss: “Like me, I’m sure you have been receiving communication from constituents across the county complaining about the durability of the council’s road repairs, specifically on the filling of potholes.
“I note from my recent trips to Caithness that many roads have been resurfaced to a high standard but I’m sure you will agree that the condition of the wider network is still at an unsatisfactory level.
“When it comes to road repairs, filling potholes can only be viewed as a short-term solution and my concern is that the Highland Council do not have a long-term strategy in place to enable an effective roads recovery programme.
“Given your position within the Highland Council as the vice-chair of the corporate resources committee, you will be more than aware of the financial affairs of the council, including spending on the road network.
“My view is that the rurality of the Highland road network cannot be the only factor contributing to poor road infrastructure.
“As referenced in my letter to the Scottish Road Works Commissioner, within the rural family group, the Highland Council’s roads sit mid-table but its SPI [Statutory Performance Indicator] still sits lower than the Scottish average and fifth out of the eight councils in this group, with areas with similar rurality like Aberdeenshire, Moray and Angus performing significantly better.”
Cllr Reiss said it was his sincere wish that a solution be found, adding that he did not want to engage in a political fight with Ms Todd but to find solutions for the people of Caithness.
He added yesterday: “I've had many people asking basically why are the roads in such poor condition? And that has been a difficult question to answer.
“I think these very stark figures probably do answer the question – namely that for many years the council has not been receiving its fair share of the cake.
"It would be good to try and assess urgently how much Highland Council is losing out by.
“The figure of the approximately 18,000 outstanding road complaints is absolutely not a criticism of the council. It is just evidence of the lack of resources over many years.
“There are five roads managers, so that's an average of 3600 of these complaints individually. That's an impossible workload, even allowing for the fact that some of the reports will undoubtedly be more than one person reporting the same fault.”
