£8m roads improvement programme for Argyll and Bute

Argyll and Bute Council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee has endorsed an £8m roads improvement programme for the area.

This sum includes an additional £2.6 million, approved at last month’s budget meeting.

Allocations for the 2022-23 roads reconstruction programme are as follows:

The overall budget is divided `based on the area of road network. For example, there is a greater road surface area in Oban, Lorn and the Isles than in Helensburgh and Lomond.

The proposed schemes have been identified using feedback from our communities, the Councils Roads Asset database, and the information collected from a SCANNER Survey that was carried out during the summer. The purpose of the programme is to slow down the rate of decline and provide an overall improvement in road condition. The success of this approach is evident in recent years through independent evaluation.

Councillor Rory Colville, the Council’s Policy Lead for Roads and Infrastructure, said: “We would love to be able to carry out improvements to all our roads but unfortunately, like most Scottish Councils, we just don’t have the available funding to do so.

“Instead, we have developed a strategy that we know from experience is successful; a strategy that minimises reactive work by delivering a variety of surfacing techniques that reduce deterioration and improve the overall condition of the road surface.

“£8 million is a large investment and will have a significant impact on everyone who uses the roads network, not to mention the benefits it will have on the local economy and tourism.”

Full details of the programme are available on the Council website.