Landward Caithness representative David Flear said he would sooner see the money spent on improving the road.

"Let's get the road right before we start thinking about putting Gaelic signs on it," he said.

Mr Flear, stressed that eight of the 10 local councillors opposed the scheme when it was debated by the Highland Council earlier this year and added: "We should not have something like this imposed on us. If there are proposals to put Gaelic signs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee then I would be happy to see them in the rest of Scotland. The vast majority of people in Caithness are against them. There should be a 'Welcome to the Highlands' sign in Gaelic but not all the way along the A9. That would be a waste of money."

Two local councillors – Bill Fernie, Wick, and Willie Mackay, Landward Caithness – backed the proposal when it was debated earlier in the year but were unavailable for comment this week.

As reported previously, Mr Mackay welcomed the signs as part of what he called "the great momentum for Gaelic in Caithness".

He said the Mod in 2010 would bring hundreds of people to the county and felt the Gaelic signs should be supported. Mr Fernie agreed and said he could not "see anything diminished if there are Gaelic signs".

The debate about the Gaelic signs was reignited after the Highland Council agreed to press for a meeting with Scottish Government ministers to discuss completing bilingual signage of the trunk road network and in particular the A9.

The council will also raise concerns about the national issues of Gaelic teacher recruitment.

Members of the council's Gaelic committee highlighted the need to lobby Holyrood to include bilingual signage in the Government's recently declared commitment to dual the A9 from Perth to Inverness. In addition, there was cross-party support for extending bilingual signage to the rest of the A9 and other key routes such as the A86, A96 and the A95.

Councillor Hamish Fraser, chairman of Gaelic committee, said: "Members of the Gaelic committee are in total agreement that the council will write to John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, and Fiona Hislop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, seeking a meeting to discuss bilingual signage and Gaelic teacher recruitment."

Councillor Michael Foxley, leader of the Highland Council's administration, said: "The council's political leadership would very much welcome the opportunity to meet and discuss how the Scottish Government and the council can work together to bilingually sign the A9 from Perth to Inverness and how we can address the critical issues of recruiting Gaelic teachers."

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