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Moray’s roads are REALLY the third best in Scotland

Councillor Mac Macrae welcomed a new report into Moray's roads. Image: Jason Hedges/ DC Thomson.
Councillor Mac Macrae welcomed a new report into Moray's roads. Image: Jason Hedges/ DC Thomson.

While many of our readers tell us they are driving on what is left of the road to avoid potholes – Moray Council has had some very good news.

That is, it’s £1.678 billion road network has been ranked as the third best in Scotland.

The stats, monitored through the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey, is calculated by adding up the roads rated red and amber after inspection.

In Moray, the latest road condition indicators (RCI) show it is continuing to improve year on year.

For example only 25% of its A-class roads are on the red and amber list. That means about 75% of A roads in Moray are top notch.

It is better than the picture in 2018-2020 when 30% of the roads were on the red and amber list.

Potholes have been a major problem for the council in the past. Image: Stock.

Unclassified roads are the worst

Broken down, the picture in Moray is not so clear cut.

The RCI for a A-class roads is 24.1% with a ranking of 14th in Scotland, and on unclassified roads the Scottish ranking is 9th, with 30.3% of roads needing repaired.

B and C class roads come in at third and fifth on the national rankings.

Despite an increase in the length of the adopted road networks to maintain without additional budget, Moray’s unclassified roads have seen an improvement.

They are 1.7% better than in 2020-2022, which will be a comfort to anyone who has hit a pothole recently.

What about potholes?

Between the start of 2017 and March this year, Moray Council workers completed a total of 25,566 repairs to defects on carriageways.

And over the course of the 2017/18 financial year until March 2022, the local authority had spent almost £3 million in its efforts to keep the region’s roads clear of potholes for all users.

A, B, and C class roads have all deteriorated from previous years but maintain Moray’s place in the top half of the rankings when compared to other local authorities.

Marc Macrae, chairman of Moray Council’s economic development and infrastructure services committee, said: “The approach officers take when considering which roads to repair first, is to look at the condition over a longer period of time rather than automatically fixing the roads that look the worst first.

Councillor Marc Macrae has welcomed a report on the state of Moray roads. Image: Jason Hedges/DC Thomson.

“That sometimes means fixing roads we think don’t look too bad but it’s better value to maintain in the first instance.

“This has proven to be the best use of resources and I’m pleased the council has maintained a steady position compared to other local authorities.

He added: “That said, the overall condition of roads in Scotland is improving and with an increasing network size and decreasing budget we will need to rely even more on the data-led judgement of how best to maintain our roads in future.”

The comparison figures on Audit Scotland are due to be published in March.

We’d like to hear about the roads in your area – to find out if the government statistics match up to the evidence on the ground for walkers, cyclists and drivers. Comment below or e-mail livenews@ajl.co.uk

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