MORE than 10,000 potholes have been repaired by Fife Council in 2021 but they've admitted there's still a backlog and roads are still not up to standard.

And after carrying out patching work in the Garvock area of Dunfermline earlier this year, they've recognised they'll need to return to do more repairs – but there's no timescale of when that will happen.

Marianne Ellis, who lives on St John's Drive, complained to the council in February about the craters on roads in the area and six potholes were filled the following month.

However, she told the Press she was "unhappy with the level of repair" and that "the state of the road is disgusting, especially when you hit the holes in the dark".

That led to a meeting council officers in June to discuss the matter, highlighting similar problems in Scotland Drive and other carriageways in Garvock.

Ms Ellis said: "The reason the meeting happened was because I was told the potholes were fixed and I can assure you they are not!

"Even worse this week due to Appin Crescent being resurfaced and all the traffic is coming along St John's Drive."

Nothing has happened since and the council's service manager, Bill Liddle, told the Press: "Minor patching work has been carried out in St John's Drive.

"However we are aware that more needs to be done and this work will be prioritised within our repairs programme."

Last year, the council adopted a new “risk-based” system to assess how quickly pothole repairs should be carried out.

The aim is to ensure the most dangerous defects are repaired within 24 hours although the change in priority means it may take longer, possibly up to a year or more, to fix those that are not deemed to be an immediate hazard.

It's supposed to ensure that, instead of a quick fix patch job, a more permanent repair will mean it won't have to be revisited in the short term.

Main roads and bus routes will take priority but repairs assessed as low priority, typically the smaller streets in housing estates where most people stay, will have to wait longer than before.

Convener of the council's economy, tourism, strategic planning and transportation sub committee, Councillor Altany Craik, said he shared frustrations that the roads are not yet of a standard that Fifers should expect.

He added: "I can reassure local people that we are working very hard with the resources available to us to bring our roads network up to scratch.

"The backlog of repairs is slowly coming down and we've repaired over 10,000 potholes since the start of the year.

"Larger scale patching work is also continuing across Fife as part of the £9.9 million investment that's being put into repairing and improving our roads over the next two years."