Pothole taskforce setup in Edinburgh

The City of Edinburgh Council has setup a dedicated squad to tackle the city’s potholes.

A team of neighbourhood staff has been put together to coordinate an intensive programme of repairs concentrating on main arterial routes.

Permanent repairs to road and pavement surfaces, aiming to be ‘right first time’, will be carried out in the City Centre & Leith and South neighbourhoods during spring, with a further package of work being developed to address other areas of the city.

The drive to improve Edinburgh’s roads will also see the number of squads undertaking short-term emergency repairs increase temporarily from three to seven to deal with problem areas.

Transport Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: “We recognise there has been an increase in the number of potholes across the city over winter and now we’re addressing the issue. In addition to our ongoing roads repair programme, we are focusing our resources on a dedicated team of staff to manage our road repairs. This will allow us to target the city’s problem areas by getting permanent repairs ‘right first time’ which will reduce disruption.”

Packages of work targeting City Centre & Leith and South neighbourhoods, costing £120,000 and £60,000 respectively, will be funded from existing neighbourhood budgets and will add to ongoing patching repairs taking place throughout the year.