MORE than £850,000 of roadworks are earmarked to take place in Helensburgh and Lomond during the 2019/20 financial year – but the amount is the smallest of any of Argyll and Bute's four administrative areas.

A report has revealed that a total of 20 stretches of road have been pencilled in for treatment in the 12 months from April.

The document will be discussed by Argyll and Bute Council's environment, development and infrastructure committee on Thursday, March 7, after councillors approved the authority's spending plans at the authority's annual budget meeting last month.

READ MORE: Argyll and Bute Council sets its budget for 2019-20

The B833 Mambeg to Peaton road is set to see the most expenditure of the 20 roadwork areas, receiving £193,000 worth of work.

A total of £89,000 would be spent on James Street in Helensburgh while Maidstone Road, at the rear of Faslane Naval Base, is set to see investment of £82,500.

All of the proposed work is either surface dressing or inlay road surfacing, except for pre-surface dressing work on main roads, which accounts for £23,500 of the total of £871,175.

Helensburgh and Lomond has received the smallest proposed allocation of the budget of the four divisions of Argyll and Bute Council.

More than £2 million each has been allocated to Mid-Argyll, Kintyre and Islay and to Oban, Lorn and the Isles, while £1.3m is proposed to be spent in Bute and Cowal.

The sum set to be spent in the Helensburgh and Lomond area in 2019-20 is also significantly less than the £1.17m set aside to improve the area's roads network in 2018-19.

READ MORE: Helensburgh and Lomond's 2018-19 road works programme unveiled

The report, by executive director of development and infrastructure Pippa Milne, states: “The roads reconstruction programme has been structured in line with the roads asset management and maintenance strategy.

“The focus has been to arrest the rate of decline and provide an overall improvement in condition as has been demonstrated in the annual status and options report.

“In previous years this has been achieved through the delivery of a mix of carriageway resurfacing, edge strengthening, patching/surface dressing and in-situ road surface recycling.

“These treatments have been designed to seal the road to stop the ingress of water, improve ride quality and reduce the amount of reactive repairs. This has resulted in an overall improvement in road condition.

“Without these works and investment there would have been a significant deterioration in condition. Additional funding was allocated at the council budget meeting on February 22, 2018, for financial years 2018/19 and 2019/20.”

The report also states that a further £84,250 is planned to be spent on improving footways in Helensburgh and Lomond.

Ms Milne's report adds: “It is recommended that the committee endorses the proposed programme of capital works for 2019/20, and also agrees that details of each area committee’s programme will be forwarded on to individual elected members.

“Updates to area committees will be provided as the programme progresses.”