A deadline for carrying out much needed housing repairs in parts of Lanarkshire is needed, a local councillor has claimed.
Robert Brown, the Liberal Democrat leader at South Lanarkshire Council (SLC), believes that parts of Rutherglen are in desperate need of work.
The local authority last week approved plans for further investment in housing, but Councillor Brown - who presents Rutherglen South - has called for further steps to be taken to ensure the work is carried out swiftly.
He told Lanarkshire Live : “Many longstanding tenants in Rutherglen and Cambuslang have paid rent for many years- but have to put up with decaying roofs, crumbling grey roughcast or an unattractive outside environment.
"In my own ward, parts of Spittal, Blairbeth, Fernhill, Springhall and Cathkin are in this category but I know there are similar situations in many other wards.
"I have made a fuss about this for some years so I am glad to see the increased work planned in this year’s budget. I want to stress that these things are not just cosmetic.
"Some of the roofs are clapped out, the roughcast no longer does its job.
"I can point to many instances of brown marks on tenement and house walls in Rutherglen from leaking gutters or other water problems in the past which have damaged the integrity of the roughcast."
The council have approved the budget for external fabric work doubling from £4,588,605 to £9,821,631 and environmental improvements will also double to over £4m.
Councillor Brown added: "We have succeeded in investing around £200,000 or so a year in the decayed outside environment in Springhall – close mouths, back green areas, gutters and balconies – so an increase in the rate of the work and the areas covered will be welcome too.
"However, I told the housing committee that I thought the time had come to set a firm timetable to deal with the remainder of the older houses and complete necessary roof and roughcast works and major environmental works in particular."
Further details of where the money will be invested will be revealed later this year.
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