Community Safety

Audit Scotland - Need for urgent action to tackle road maintenance.


In the last two years the UK has had to cope with winter storms and severe weather the likes of which had not been seen for 30 years previous.

Residents and road users all queried why those responsible for keeping our roads open were not better prepared for the severe weather when it hit in December 2010 more especially since the UK had faced similar problems in the previous year. Hadn't lessons been learnt?

The closure of Scotland's Motorway network and main arterial roads across the Central belt for a few days in December 2010 led to fierce criticism of the performance/response of Local Authorities, Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government to the severe weather. The level of public discontent and the seriousness of the situation were underlined when the then Transport Minister was forced to stand down from Office.

Audit Scotland has recently carried out a review of Scotland's roads networks. One of the main findings of the report Maintaining Scotland's Roads is that "Despite high levels of overall spending on public services, the condition of Scotland's roads worsened over the past six years. In 2010, only 63% of roads were in an acceptable condition and the cost of the maintenance backlog increased to £2.25 billion, £1 billion more than in 2004."

Transport Minister, Ian Brown welcomed the report. The Scottish Government has accepted the outcome and main recommendations of the report. The Transport Minister has called for a national review of how Scotland's road network is managed and maintained. Mr Brown says "The review will be undertaken over the course of the summer and is expected to report in the autumn with a Road Maintenance Summit proposed to discuss its findings." Click here to read the Minister's full statement

Motherwell Community Forum voiced the community's concerns about the state of our roads network and more local concerns about the road closures and gritting services in our area through the usual channels. We are happy that Audit Scotland's Report echoed these same concerns. We eagerly wait to learn of the outcome of the review and hope that it will result in better collaboration, communication and sharing of resources among Stakeholders that ensures there is no repetition of the chaos experienced last year.

Handy hints on combatting e-crime

The Scottish Business Centre produced a really handy and helpful Newsletter last December. The Newsletter contains some handy tips and hints about what to look out for and how best to deter e-crime. The information although published with the busy Festive Season in mind, is relevant and as helpful now, which explains our decision to signpost it now.