Scotland’s 'dangerous' pothole problem revealed

There are hundreds of thousands of potholes across Scotland, with councils paying out millions of pounds in compensation to drivers.

Some councils are taking more than a year to repair the damaged roads, STV News can reveal.

A Freedom of Information request shows that the Scottish Borders is the pothole capital of Scotland with nearly 60,000 recorded in 2024.

Edinburgh was second with 20,852. Aberdeen recorded 6,600 and Dundee recorded 13,118. Despite being Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow recorded just 2,636 potholes.

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Pothole at bus stop on Paisley Road West in Glasgow. STV News

Councils have had to pay out £4.2 million in compensation between 2019/20 and 2023/24.

More than £836,957 was paid out in compensation for damage caused by potholes in 2024. Midlothian Council had the biggest pothole bill, paying out £220,452.

Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Fife councils all had potholes waiting more than a year to be repaired. In Moray, a pothole went unrepaired for 471 days after being reported.

A pothole reveals cobblestones on Midlock Street, Glasgow. STV News

The pothole scourge has become an election issue.

Local authorities say that “another year of flat cash” has put council finances under intense pressure despite a commitment to keeping roads safe.

“This means that the funding needed to meet the high standards and efficiency for essential services, including road maintenance, must go even further and councils need to juggle competing priorities,” said a spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

“This will inevitably have consequences which councils do their best to minimise for their communities.”

The Conservatives, Labour and the SNP have pledged pothole funds to fix the “sorry state” of Scotland’s roads.

The Lib-Dems and Greens have said they would reallocate money for repairs.

‘Dangerous’

“Motorists are trying to go to work, go about their daily business and, more often than not, they’re encountering these highly dangerous potholes,” said Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay.

“And they’re not just dangerous, they’re not just causing accidents, but they’re also costing taxpayers huge sums of money because, more often than not, cars going through these things end up being subject to costly repairs, and the cost of those repairs is very often claimed by motorists from councils, quite rightly.”

Findlay accused the SNP of ignoring the problem and said his party would set up a national pothole action fund if the Conservatives get into power.

He said the pothole fund would see roads repaired with better equipment to ensure they do not return, and the Tories would also give the Scottish Roadworks Commissioner more power to take action against roadworks companies who fail to deliver an adequate service.

Findlay said: “It’s so frustrating. You go to some parts of Scotland and you see vast sums of money being spent on new lands, hard landscaping, on cycle lanes, on paths, and it all looks lovely…

“Sometimes this looks like a third-world country we’re in if you look at the mess the SNP have made of our streets.”

‘Sorry state’

“Across Scotland, motorists are paying the price for the SNP’s failure to get the basics right,” said Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

“Our roads are in a sorry state, potholes are causing misery every single day, and drivers, families and businesses are left to pick up the bill.”

He said Labour would establish a new road repair fund worth £350 million over the next five years, enough to fix an estimated 4.8 million potholes.

The funding would be repurposed from the active and sustainable travel budget, while protecting bus infrastructure investment.

‘Fix the damn roads’

“Everyone will tell you that the roads near them are like the surface of the moon,” said Lib-Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton.

“We just need to fix the damn roads. It means extending funding to local government that has been eroded year on year by the SNP government.

“We need to make sure they have the resources to fix potholes locally.”

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have pledged to invest in critical infrastructure – including dualling the A9, tunnels in the northern isles and restoring the ferry fleet.

“If we can’t get Scotland moving, we can’t get Scotland’s economy moving,” Cole-Hamilton said.

“And it’s more than just potholes, it’s dualling the A9, which is killing as many as ten people a year, the A96 as well, the Rest and Be Thankful, and the A75, all of these are critical infrastructure roads that the SNP has neglected.”

‘Every politician knows about pothole problem’

“Potholes are one of the issues that every politician is familiar with from our inboxes and from our own experiences,” said Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer.

“From the Greens’ perspective, what really frustrates us is governments putting huge amounts of money into building new trunk roads, new motorways, and not enough money into maintaining the roads that we’ve got.

The Greens would reallocate money to road maintenance, Greer said. The party also wants to take heavy commercial vehicles off the road and make bus transport free for everyone in Scotland.

“We would also make sure that we take the vehicles off the roads that are causing the most damage. If we invested more in our railways, we could carry more freight by rail.

“That would take those lorries off the roads, that would result in our roads being in far better condition.”

‘Better Surfaces’

The SNP has promised a £350 million “Better Surfaces” fund to tackle potholes.

The money will support local councils to fix potholes, carry out resurfacing, and improve drainage.

An SNP spokesperson said: “To deliver better roads we will establish the ‘Better Surfaces’ fund to support local government capital expenditure in fixing potholes, carrying out resurfacing, and improving drainage from roads across the country.

“This could deliver up to £350 million of supported investment over the next parliament.”