Some roads in Aberdeenshire required hundreds of pothole repairs in just three years, according to new figures.
Between April 2017 and the start of the lockdown in March, local authority crews patched up more than 31,000 dips and dents in carriageways throughout the region.
Of these, 275 appeared on just one stretch of unclassified road used by lorries during the creation of the city bypass.
Teams visited the C13K road between Bourtreebush Smithy and North Rothnick, which is west of the A92 at Portlethen, to make repairs on 15 separate occasions.
At times, they were repairing between 30 and 40 potholes in a session due to the deteriorating condition of the road.
It had previously been agreed that the route would be used by AWPR contractors to access one of their construction sites, but residents and business owners hit out at the “bad state” of the stretch.
Elsewhere, crews repaired 250 potholes on an unclassified road near Alford.
They visited the winding stretch between Redhouse and Millburn on several occasions in 2017 and 2018, as well as February of this year.
Additionally, 198 potholes were fixed on the B976 Strachan to Whitestone Road, while crews were called to The Square in Mintlaw – where some of the main roads to Aberdeen, Peterhead and Fraserburgh all intersect.
A spokesman for road safety charity, IAM Roadsmart said: “We have a lot of sympathy for Aberdeenshire Council as we know that budgets are under stress but a proper long term repair plan actually saves money by avoiding the need to return to the same location again and again.
“Drivers and riders also get safer roads and less delays.
“This data simply underlines what we have being saying for years that without a long term plan to get rid of the £1 billion road maintenance backlog in Scotland money will continue to be wasted making do and mending rather than fixing potholes permanently.”
Last year Aberdeenshire Council spent just under £3.5 million repairing road defects, including potholes.
This marked an 17% increase of the £3.0m spent in 2017-18.
A council spokeswoman added that, operating within a fixed budget, the authority must meet the demand of maintenance on around 3,500 miles of road.
She said: “”Expenditure on road maintenance activities has increased over the last number of years for a number of reasons.
“As road users know, potholes can appear at any time and often require a relatively speedy response to ensure the road is safe.
“This can mean that a semi-permanent repair is required in the first instance, with a permanent repair being completed at a later date.”
