The 2023/24 roads maintenance programme will use the additional £3m of resources alongside other annual budgets to improve the condition of 40 roads and 13 pavements throughout the area.

In its 2019/20 budget, the local authority committed an additional £15m capital investment for roads infrastructure enhancements over the following five years.

During the first four years of this additional capital investment, to the end of 2022/23, a total of 134 road and 44 pavement resurfacing projects have been completed. Without this capital allocation these roads and pavements would not have received any treatment other than safety defect repairs.

East Renfrewshire’s A and B class road network is classed as in a relatively good condition and the majority of the additional £3m annual allocation has been directed towards residential roads (C and unclassified roads).

As with previous years, the prioritisation of the resurfacing projects has taken a range of factors into account including: the structural condition of the road or pavement, its usage, cost of maintenance for the previous three years, number of complaints received and geographical spread.

Roads and pavements set to be resurfaced across the area over the coming year include: Larchwood Terrace, Barrhead, Forrestfield Crescent, Newton Mearns, Double Hedges Road, Neilston, Merryton Avenue, Giffnock, Westfield Road, Thornliebank, Burnside Gardens, Clarkston, Arthur Street, Busby and Montgomery Street, Eaglesham.

Earlier this year, the council outlined plans to continue the extra capital investment which was due to finish next year. The improvement programme will extend for a further five years, starting in 2024/25 and invest £3.5m each year on upgrading roads and pavements.

Councillor Danny Devlin, convener for housing and environment, said: “High quality roads are a key priority for our residents so I’m delighted that a further 53 roads and pavements are set to benefit from improvements over the next year. It’s great that 178 road and pavement resurfacing projects have been completed since the additional capital investment began in 2019. It’s clear they have made a real difference to local communities, as we aim to continue to improve our road network year on year. I’m looking forward to seeing the upgrades completed this year.”

Alongside the resurfacing works, £200-300k of this additional capital budget has also been spent each year on upgrading street lighting and replacing lanterns with more energy efficient LEDs. 18 sets of traffic signals/pedestrian crossings have also been replaced or upgraded.

In addition to the resurfacing programme, £200k of the additional capital budget for 2023/24 has been allocated to large scale road patching repairs.