The above headline is credit to the work of Jamie Greene (West Scotland) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party) who helpfully asked the Scottish Government on Tuesday how much had been spent on trunk road maintenance, inclusive of all roads under its, and its agencies’, financial or statutory responsibility in each year since 2007.

Michael Matheson replied that:

The following table summarises Trunk Road maintenance and operation investment by financial year. The totals include road and bridge maintenance, routine/cyclic maintenance, minor improvements, winter service and road safety improvements. The totals also include expenditure in respect to operational Design Build Finance and Operate Schemes (e.g. M74, M77, M80, M8/M73/M74 and AWPR).

I’ll spare you the whole table and get to the point with the figures for:

2007/8 £262.1 million

2019/20 £474.3 million

Click to access WA20191217.pdf

Readers may remember Greene from a 2016 intervention blaming the SG government for a lack of telecommunications rollout plans when such are, of course, matters reserved to Westminster: https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-eternal-opposition/

Evidence of the effects of the road maintenance investment can be seen in the fact that in only one case out of more than 800 road fatalities, was a ‘poor or defective road surface’ even a ‘contributory factor’ in the collision. 

https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2019/04/27/shock-as-badly-maintained-roads-cause-no-fatalities-in-5-years/

We can thank Greene’s colleague Finlay Carson for that one.