Moray's roads ranked as third best in Scotland
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MORAY'S roads have been ranked as the third best in Scotland according to the results of a national survey.
The condition of Moray Council's £1.678 billion road network is monitored by the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey which calculates the Road Condition Indicator (RCI) of all local authorities in Scotland.
The survey uses the RCI to assess the condition of A, B and C class roads as well as unclassified roads.
It found that, despite an increase in the length of adopted road networks to maintain in the region without any additional budget, Moray's unclassified roads have improved.
However, the region's A,B and C class roads have all deteriorated compared to previous years. The condition of the roads still maintain Moray's place in the top half of the rankings, however, when compared to other local authorities in Scotland.
Councillor Marc Macrae (Fochabers Lhanbryde), Chair of the 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.
"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.
"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."
Mark Atherton, Roads Maintenance Manager, said that Moray's strong position at a national level should be treated with "some caution" in his report which was issued to members of the committee.
He concluded that the capital investment proposed within the council's 10-year capital plan, which is subject to full council approval in March, should remain at current levels moving forward.
