The Highland Council has outlined road maintenance as a key priority in its upcoming budget proposals.

The local authority will agree its future budget at a meeting on Thursday, 15 February.

Chair of the Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Allan Henderson, said with a roads network spanning thousands of kilometres, the proposed budget "protects spending on roads and will allow us to drive forward continued improvement to the network".

"We have nearly 7,000 kilometres of roads in the Highlands and this network is vital to our rural communities and lifeline services," he said.

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"Every penny invested in maintaining this critical network also helps to support our tourism and business economy as well as improve connectivity for everyone in the Highlands.

"This winter we have faced challenges due to the ice, snow and low temperatures.  This has meant that our roads team have only been able to undertake temporary pot-hole repairs using cold tar. They will continue undertaking as many of these as they can while also carry out winter gritting duties.

"However our programme of planned pot hole repairs and other road maintenance works will start in March when the weather improves and there are no frosts. I urge motorists to report potholes using the online 'potholes' form on the council's website www.highland.gov.uk/report so that we can plan and prioritise the most urgent repairs."

(LM/MH)