AROUND £360 million needs to be spent on bringing the city council's decaying buildings up to scratch, a new report has warned.
Council officials have estimated the property maintenance backlog could take 30 years to clear even if the annual £5m maintenance budget is more than doubled.
The backlog affects every area of the council's operations from housing and schools to r
oads and council offices.
Council chiefs currently spend around £5m every year on maintenance, but officials working on the city's future investment plans estimate an additional £12m per annum would be needed over the next 30 years in order to clear the backlog.
The maintenance obligations facing the council range from statutory duties, such as servicing boilers, to replacing worn out windows.
It is thought the city council has one of the oldest property portfolios in Scotland, with many of its buildings over 40 years old. This adds significant costs for the local authority.
Council chiefs today said taking their property portfolio beyond the current 'wind and watertight' objective would require significant additional investment, but added they are considering this as part of the next year's budgeting process.
Opposition politicians today called on the council to look for external investment to try and make a dent in the backlog.
Councillor Jeremy Balfour, the Tories' education spokesman, said: "Obviously it is a financially difficult time right now and a degree of belt tightening is required if this backlog is to be tackled.
"However, we are in this position because of the previous administration's record over the last few decades, where they consistently under-invested in matters such as roads and pavement maintenance.
"This is now the opportunity to look at more innovative ways of trying to bridge this gap.
"We need to look at third party funding sources for bigger projects, particularly schools, and other ways of raising revenue."
Last year, the Evening News revealed that more than £70m is needed to be spent to bring Edinburgh's worn-out roads and pavements up to scratch.
A council survey revealed hundreds of outstanding repairs, ranging from potholed roads to cracked paving slabs.
City leaders earlier this week said they face a £20m shortfall in the sale of council-owned land it had hoped would fund its building commitments, such as the new schools programmes. The local authority's energy bills are also set to rise by £10m in the next year.
A council spokesman said: "We carry out maintenance to keep our estate safe, and wind and watertight. To do considerably more than that would require a significant additional investment, but that is something that has to be considered as part of the overall capital programme."
Left in the dark by a faulty street lightA FAULTY lamppost has been out of order for more than a year, despite repeated complaints from residents.
Alan and Anne Russell, of South Learmonth Gardens, said the street light outside their home hadn't come on in the evenings since last October, instead switching on during the day or the early hours of the morning.
And the couple believe the lack of light has been responsible for at least two nasty falls.
Mr Russell, 50, slipped on the steps which lead from the couple's flat to the pavement last weekend at around 7pm, and again on Wednesday night, suffering pain and bruising to his right leg.
He said: "There are only lights on one side of the street here so if one is out, it really is pitch black. If I take a bad fall, that's me crippled."
Neighbour Bob Laidlaw, 56, also had a bad fall coming out of the Russell's home at New Year, tearing a ligament in his right knee.
He said: "The council denied all liability but the bottom line is they were negligent."
A council spokeswoman said a fault had been reported on four occasions and inspections carried out.
She added: "We will be carrying out a repair within the next seven days."
The full article contains 667 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
