The City of Edinburgh Council has formed a dedicated team to repair potholes in the region.

The initiative will carry out permanent repairs to road and pavement surfaces in the City Centre/Leith and South neighbourhoods.

Each package of work will cost £120,000 and £60,000. Funding will be used from existing neighbourhood budgets and will add to ongoing patching repairs taking place throughout the year.

In addition, the number of teams undertaking short-term emergency repairs will increase temporarily from three to seven.

-- Advertisement --

Transport Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: "We recognise there has been an increase in the number of potholes across the city over winter and now we're addressing the issue. In addition to our ongoing roads repair programme, we are focusing our resources on a dedicated team of staff to manage our road repairs. This will allow us to target the city's problem areas by getting permanent repairs 'right first time' which will reduce disruption.

"We're also boosting our temporary repairs team to respond to emergency potholes and defects in order to ensure the safety of all road users, which is our number one priority, complementing our ongoing programme of road and pavement improvements across the city."

The council has committed to spending over £15 million on roads and pavements in 2016/17.

The repair programmes will begin in spring.

(LM)