CRUMBLING roads across the region will start to improve from today- and despite the date (April 1), that’s no joke.
That is the message from councillors who have been discussing the progress, or otherwise, of road and pothole repairs.
Members of the Annandale and Eskdale area committee noted that the new financial year, which starts today, will see a £30 million injection into the roads department to tackle the mounting problems across the area.
But at last week’s meeting they also called for more information and better updates for the public about how that’s spent and the subsequent results.
Councillors told officials the current system doesn’t keep them or the public up-to-date enough.
Annandale South’s George Jamieson said: “I get a lot of continuous complaints about the state of the rural roads. It’s a major issue with deep potholes that are seriously dangerous.
“There is no confidence in the general public on how we manage potholes and it’s a hard one to defend.
“We need to give the public some form of hope that it’s going to get better because it’s a serious issue.
“Top of all our lists is potholes and we need to have something we can tell our constituents, not just that we have invested a lot of money in it. We need to have key indications that we can give them that the money invested is being utilised and we have made progress.
“Our communication needs to be better so everyone understands we are on the case and when they are they going to see a difference.”
Fellow councillor Sean Marshall agreed there’s a ‘lot of frustration’, adding: “There’s now a Facebook group DG Potholes and I think the council should be really active and pro-active on social media with potholes: with pictures of which ones are fixed and repaired.
“The council need to give more detail, I think that would resonate with councillors and general public.”
Annandale North member Stephen Thompson described ‘a dearth of information relevant to Annandale and Eskdale’ and said: “We did investment previously to recuit and strengthen winter resilience. I would have thought that would have made some improvement.
“What difference has that made on top of what’s about to come?”
Cllr Archie Dryburgh flagged up that the new funding will kick in on Monday, April 1, with a confident committee chairman Cllr Ian Carruthers saying: “We will definitely see a significant difference over the next year with that extra level of investment.”
