Investment in Glasgow’s roads is suffering from a multi-million pound shortfall.

The budget to maintain the roads at current levels is more than £8million shy of what is required.

The council has produced an annual report into the condition of the roads, footpaths and cycleway infrastructure.

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Just to stand still at the current condition(steady state) would require £31.4m.

However, the level of spending at present is only £22.8m.

The report by George Gillespie, executive director of neighbourhoods, states: “ It can be seen that current investment falls short of the estimated level required to maintain existing condition. This is true for each of the asset groups. The overall shortfall is approximately £8.6m per annum.”

The network needs £12.7m to maintain roads and £2.25 for pavements and cycleways but only £9m and £1.65m respectively is being allocated.

The remainder is needed for lighting, signals and the Clyde Tunnel.

The report reveals the roads have worsened and satisfaction is the lowest in more than a decade.

The latest condition data shows that the state of the city’s carriageways slightly deteriorated to 70.8% in acceptable condition.

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Mr Gillespie however, said: “Despite this deterioration of 0.9%, Glasgow continues to be one of the best performing Road Authorities in the country”. 

He added: “There is a direct correlation between customer satisfaction and public pothole reports.

“Extreme winter weather and more frequent summer rain events has a detrimental impact on the number of public pothole reports received and, therefore, customer satisfaction.

“The latest data indicates that satisfaction with roads maintenance has fallen to the lowest level since 2011 (12%) whilst we saw a large increase in public pothole reports to over 21,000.”

For roads the report states: “To enable Glasgow City Council to further improve its performance, an increase in investment to £13.95 million per annum, sustained over a five year period, would improve condition, reducing the ongoing cost of maintenance to £10.6 million per annum thereafter”.

The council report notes it is better to invest more in maintenance to prevent costly repairs.

It states: “It is significant to note that the overall cost of the recommended improvement plan is less than the cost to preserve steady state.

“It is cheaper to intervene early in the material lifecycle than to wait until more extensive repairs are required and a fairly small increase in investment now, will save a substantial amount of money in the future.”