Councillors will get regular, detailed updates on potholes, repair costs and closures to track how new funding is spent
The West Lothian Council has agreed that elected members will receive formal, twice-yearly briefings on the condition of local roads, focusing on potholes and related patching work. These updates will be prepared by the council’s roads and transportation team and are intended to give councillors a clearer picture of the scale of repairs, the financial impact and the outstanding workload the service faces.
The change follows a joint motion brought to full council earlier this year, reflecting growing public concern about the state of the road network.
At a recent Executive meeting the council’s roads manager, Gordon Brown, confirmed the destination for these summaries will be the Environment and Sustainability Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel (PDSP).
The intention is to offer structured, comparable information at two points in the year so progress can be tracked more easily and decisions on resource allocation can be better informed. The aim is both transparency and practicality for planning maintenance activity.
What the reports will include
The future briefings will set out key operational and financial metrics so councillors can see work volumes and costs at a glance. Each report will list the number of potholes reported during the period, how many were dealt with as permanent repairs versus temporary fixes, and any road closures or diversions implemented to allow safe working. In addition the documents will show the cost implications of the work and an assessment of the maintenance backlog for potholes, helping to identify pressure points on the network and on the council budget.
Data points and format
The reporting format will be designed to make trends obvious: counts of defects, repair categories and financial figures will be presented regularly to allow year-on-year comparisons. Included in the scope are lists of roads affected by closures, the split between temporary and permanent repairs and an explicit figure for the backlog measured at the time of reporting. These elements are intended to support scrutiny and to provide a clear record of how resources are being used to tackle road defects.
Timing and governance
The council has set a fixed timetable for when those documents will be submitted to the PDSP to ensure routine oversight. Reports will be taken to the second PDSP of the financial year and the last meeting of the PDSP in the calendar year. This reporting will commence on the scheduled meeting held on the 3 November 2026 and the second arranged meeting of the financial year 2027/28 and so on. Having scheduled checkpoints aims to make scrutiny predictable and to give officers a clear deadline for compiling consistent datasets.
Funding, communication and expectations
The motion agreed by councillors on March 17 highlighted the need for clear communication with communities about the practical consequences of repair programmes, including the fact that some jobs will require road diversions and temporary closures. The council also noted that additional resources were agreed at Budget on 24th February — an increase of £1m per annum over the next two years — and emphasised the expectation that the money will be used for items such as leasing or hiring specialist equipment and recruiting extra staff to deliver more permanent pothole repairs and remedy other defects.
Local response
Locally, Linlithgow Lib Dem councillor Sally Pattle welcomed the new reporting routine and praised the roads team for prompt responses to citizen reports. She thanked Gordon Brown and his staff for the speed with which many defects have been attended to, reflecting a practical appreciation from ward-level representatives while underlining that regular, published updates should reassure residents and strengthen accountability over how the additional funding is spent.
