A row erupted over pothole repairs as a Paisley councillor claimed Renfrewshire’s roads are “falling apart” in a scathing assessment of their condition.

Councillor Eddie Devine was in a combative mood when the topic was discussed at the infrastructure, land and environment policy board on Wednesday – branding the state of the network “appalling”.

The veteran politician made the comments after a report said the council’s road operations team has made “significant improvements” when it comes to performance in “all maintenance activities including pothole response times”.

READ NEXT: Lochwinnoch shuttle links village to train station

Councillor Devine, who represents Paisley Southeast, said: “The roads are falling apart and nothing seems to happen, except we’ve gone back to what was commonly known as ‘throw and go’.

“We seem to have gone back to that again. That’s not acceptable.”

Defending the SNP administration’s “record investment” in roads, which included £6.7 million in 2023/24, Councillor Michelle Campbell, board convener, said: “If you drive outside of Renfrewshire into other local authorities then you’ll know the difference of roads really being broken down.”

Gerard Hannah, head of climate, public protection and roads, then shed further light on the local authority’s performance on the issue in recent years.

He said: “Over the last two, three years, the local government benchmarking framework that we use, our road condition index has improved steadily over the last number of years, in particular over the last year.

“Our A class and B class roads have improved markedly against both our family groups that we’re measured against and the Scottish average.

“The ‘throw and go’ as you describe it or temporary fix will generally only happen when it’s 24-hour emergency potholes and we need to put permission in to get temporary traffic management in place.

“That should be the case. However, there’s occasions, if you look at the last week or so, where the guys have been full-time engaged in, whether it’s gully cleaning, flooding, tree activities, gritting activities, there’s a limited window.

“That’s why it would happen but it’s by exception and that’s not how we tend to plan things.”

However, that explanation didn’t satisfy Councillor Devine, who is convinced the council needs to “get a handle” on permanent repairs to its roads.

He said: “I’m no wearing that it’s in the past three or four weeks. The roads in Renfrewshire are appalling, they’re falling apart.

“If I can address you, chair, I do travel about – I travel all over Scotland. It doesn’t make any difference what it’s like in Tayside. I’m answerable and you’re answerable to the people of Renfrewshire.

“You can blame it on everybody else, it’s no us, it is us. Our road network is poor to say the least and we need to get a handle on the repairs, permanent repairs.”

Councillor Campbell, who represents Erskine and Inchinnan, responded: “That’s your opinion. Like I said, I disagree.

“We’ve put record investment into the roads, that’s the facts.”