EVERY penny of extra cash sent to Scotland as a result of spending on roads south of the Border must be used to fix potholes, the Scottish Conservatives have said.
More than £40 million will be allocated to Scotland due to local roads maintenance funding outlined in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget.
The Scottish Tories demanded the additional money be spent on improving “the dreadful state of Scotland’s roads”.
The party’s transport spokesman Jamie Greene said the SNP had “failed to maintain our roads, complaining instead that they have not received enough money to do so”.
He said: “This additional money means the SNP has absolutely no excuses any more; this extra money is available now.
“Well maintained roads are essential for everyone and the current state of our roads is disgraceful.
“The SNP’s failure to maintain our roads properly is endangering public safety and slowing our economy.
“The SNP must now use this extra money from the UK Budget now, and enable local authorities to improve the roads, through the pothole fund, this year.”
The Tories previously called for a “pothole fund” which would be used to repair crumbling roads across Scotland.
The party said statistics showed more than a quarter of the country’s roads are in an unsatisfactory state.
Councils have paid out more than £2 million in pothole compensation claims to motorists over the last ten years, while figures show local maintenance funding for roads has been reduced by 20 per cent since 2011.
Local authorities spent £691m tackling problems such as potholes in 2010/11. This dropped to just £554m last year.
A spokesman for Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: “It is the SNP that is investing huge sums in Scotland’s roads network, including the new Aberdeen bypass and the work to dual the A9 – projects that the Tories failed to fund.”
Outlining his Budget on Monday, Mr Hammond said almost £30 billion would be spent on Britain's ageing roads network.
Councils in England will get an extra £420m to combat potholes, on top of an existing fund of almost £300m.
But critics insisted more than £8bn would be needed to truly address the problem.
RAC chief engineer David Bizley said the extra roads spending was "good news" for motorists.
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