North Ayrshire Council has agreed its road maintenance programme for the next 12 months, and the earmarked £8.3m to be spent on various roadworks projects and infrastructure improvement is £3m greater than that which was spent over the same period last year.

It comes after councillors agreed a budget which included the borrowing of £4m from the Public Works Loan Board to be invested in the authority’s roads network, says the Irvine Times.

The vast majority of spending, almost £6.5m, will be on carriageway resurfacing projects, with more than one-third of this, around £2.2m, will be allocated to programmes in the Irvine area.

Only two other towns, Stevenston and Kilbirnie, will see spending in excess of £500,000. Around £250,000 will be ring-fenced for spending on various patching projects across the county.

Remaining funds which form part of the overall maintenance programme will be allocated to footway resurfacing, structure projects and street lighting.

Of the 32 local authority areas in Scotland, the road condition index sees North Ayrshire routes ranked as the 10th best in the country. This has improved significantly from 2023, when the area was rated 22nd.

Thomas Reaney, head of neighbourhood services, added:

“Our roads network is vital not only for our residents, but also to ensure we can keep North Ayrshire moving and allow our economy to grow. We are regularly audited to ensure the systems we have are robust and stand up to scrutiny.

“Details of our plans are outlined in the report and we will also provide regular updates on our website when we know when works will be carried out.”

(Picture: Mapillary)