Renfrewshire Council has revealed which areas are set to benefit from a £5.7m investment in road maintenance.

The council is pledging a further £4.3m of capital investment into road maintenance, which brings the total spend for 2013-14 of £5.7m. This is the largest ever investment in roads from the council's own resources.

Road engineers have undertaken an exhaustive survey of the area’s transport network, resulting in survey results, visual inspections and community feedback to decide where best to target the money.

A majority of the money (£2.4m) will be spent on carriageway resurfacing at up to 60 locations, totalling around 15km of new road surface.

The rest of the investment includes:

* work to resurface around 9km of footway at up to 28 locations

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* surface treatment to help extend road life in various areas

* money for drainage improvements, traffic management and road safety

There will also be a £600k spend targeted at four residential areas where a significant percentage of roads are deemed in need of attention. These are Whitehaugh and Foxbar in Paisley, East Corseford, Johnstone, and East Fulton in Linwood.

The announcement comes as the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey for 2012 shows the condition of the area’s roads has improved for the second year in a row.

Councillor Eddie Devine, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Environment Policy Board, which agreed the programme of works, has welcomed the investment.

He said: "The council is determined to get the area’s roads into the best possible condition for residents, visitors and businesses, which is why we made it one of the biggest priorities for investment in the most recent budget.

"Like all Scottish councils, Renfrewshire has a backlog of road repairs still to be tackled. The exceptionally-severe winters of 2010/11 and 2011/12 caused a lot of damage to the network.

"The council is responsible for over 800km of roads and we know people will understand we cannot resurface every single street. The public should be assured our team of engineers have been comprehensive in their work to decide which streets are most in need of resurfacing, and how to do so in the most cost-effective way."

(JP)