More than a quarter of roads in Scotland are in an unsatisfactory state, new figures reveal.

The country’s road conditions have marginally improved since 2009, however, between 2015 and 2017 almost 12,000 miles of road were either earmarked for inspection or required maintenance.

Councils are responsible for overseeing most local roads, with the Scottish Government accountable for the state of the trunk road network.

The figures, produced by the BBC’s shared data unit, show the percentage of A, B and C roads that were considered for maintenance treatment.

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They come from an annual survey conducted by the National Improvement Service for Local Government in Scotland, which breaks down roads into three categories: green, amber and red.

Green means the road is in reasonable condition, amber means the road should be investigated to determine if maintenance is needed, while red means that roadworks are required.

Around 27% of A roads in Scotland from 2015 to 2017 were categorised as red or amber, which comes to about 1370 miles of road.

For B roads the figure was around 32% – or 1600 miles of road – and for C and U roads it was close to 34%, equating to around 8640 miles.

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In total over the two-year period, it amounts to more than 11,600 miles of road either in need of inspection or repair across Scotland.

However, the 27% average across the country in 2017 is a marginal improvement on the 30% figure recorded by local authorities eight years prior.

A direct comparison with figures in England and Wales is not possible as their local councils only report roads in the red category, but the percentage of English and Welsh roads deemed in poor condition is far lower.

Roads in Scotland require more maintenance than further south due to the harsher and wetter weather they experience.

RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: “Of the 246,500 miles of road in Great Britain, 77% are in England (188,500 miles) in contrast to just 15% (36,900 miles) in Scotland.

“The fact figures show so many Scottish roads are in need of maintenance is a major concern, particularly as there is much less road to maintain.

“While the transport spending per head of population in Scotland is nearly twice the amount spent in England, authorities in Scotland have a greater proportion of very remote roads to maintain – which are exposed to harsher weather conditions for more of the year – making the work more costly and challenging.”

Beast from the east: Recent bad weather caused chaos on roads. Scottish Power

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The Scottish Government pointed out a recent official report into the trunk road network which it oversees, stating that 87% of its roads were in an acceptable condition.

A spokesman said: “We fully recognise the importance of a safe and reliable trunk road network and the budget for maintenance for the roads we look after has increased by around £65m to £433m in 2018-19.

“We are currently committed to the largest road investment programme that Scotland has ever seen with the dualling of the A9, the AWPR, the M8/M74/M73 Improvements project and the Queensferry Crossing, which are already delivering benefits.

“A recent Audit Scotland report found 87% of trunk roads are in an acceptable condition.

“In times of financial constraint we are making significant efforts to maximise every penny that is spent on maintenance and our Road Asset Management Plan sets out how we prioritise maintenance and ensure cost-effective use of resources.”

The areas with roads potentially needing repairs across all classifications were Argyll and Bute, the Western Isles, North Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Stirling.