The Falkirk Council allocated £8.63 million towards its roads, footways, and street lighting infrastructure during the 2025/26 financial year. This comprehensive investment included an additional £3.6 million specifically earmarked for road maintenance and a further £330,000 dedicated to drainage system upgrades.
This enhanced funding for road upkeep, approved as part of the Council’s 2025/26 budget, enabled Roads Services to successfully complete 84 resurfacing schemes throughout the year. This figure more than doubles the 37 schemes that could have been undertaken with the existing budget alone. Looking ahead, a further 100 resurfacing projects are already scheduled for the 2026/27 period.
The latest Road Condition Indicator (RCI), which assesses the proportion of roads requiring maintenance, currently stands at 33.5%. This performance is favourable, continuing to outperform the Scottish average of 34%.
Public feedback also reflects these improvements, with reports of road network issues from residents decreasing significantly. Submissions via the Council website dropped from 7,858 in 2024/25 to 5,943 in 2025/26, marking a reduction of approximately 24%. Specifically, reports concerning potholes fell by 5%, and those related to blocked drainage decreased by 6%.
Road safety inspection performance remained exceptionally high, with 97% of carriageway inspections and 99% of footway inspections completed within their scheduled timelines. Efforts are ongoing to build upon this progress, including initiatives to shorten response times for essential road and footway repairs.
Gully cleaning operations maintained a high standard during 2025/26, with 33,750 gullies cleaned, representing 93% of the entire network. This continues a substantial increase in gully cleaning efforts over the past two years. A third year of comprehensive network-wide gully cleaning is currently in progress for 2026/27, which will also inform the development of a more targeted, risk-based approach to gully maintenance from 2027/28.
Street lighting services also demonstrated strong performance. All emergency faults were addressed and made safe or repaired within two hours, achieving 100% compliance. Routine repair performance saw an improvement, with 93.2% of tasks completed within seven days, up from 90.2% the previous year. Furthermore, the Council has successfully converted its entire street lighting stock to LED technology, leading to reduced electricity consumption and lower carbon emissions.
Winter maintenance saw an investment of £741,417 during 2025/26, covering road and footway treatments, salt supplies, and weather forecasting services. A relatively mild winter resulted in less salt usage, while the service ensured winter treatments were applied across the network whenever conditions necessitated.
“"The additional investment in our roads is delivering results. We’ve been able to resurface significantly more roads, maintain high levels of gully cleaning and we’re seeing fewer problems being reported by residents. Maintaining almost 1,000 kilometres of road and more than 1,200 kilometres of footway is a significant job, and continued investment is important if we are to protect the improvements we are making. There is always more work to do, but these figures show we are moving in the right direction. We have another 100 resurfacing schemes planned this year and will continue to focus our resources on maintaining and improving the network."
The Council is responsible for the upkeep of 997.83km of roads, 1,264km of footways, 36,290 gullies, and 28,030 street lighting columns. The road network alone carries an estimated replacement value of £1.115 billion. Road maintenance was also identified as the service most highly valued by residents during consultations for the Council’s Financial Strategy 2025-2030.
