Caithness campaigner urges council to drop 'vanity projects' and fix roads and pavements
Plans for an active travel corridor through Thurso have been scoffed at by a Caithness campaigner who says Highland Council should concentrate on meeting basic needs and forget about "vanity projects".
Iain Gregory, co-founder of Caithness Roads Recovery (CRR), is adamant that improvements to potholed roads and uneven pavements should be the priority rather than a series of active travel projects outlined by the local authority last month.
Proposals for a remodelling of one of Thurso's main thoroughfares, including segregated cycle lanes, were revealed in the Caithness Courier on February 1. Five projects – or interventions, as the council calls them – extend from Janetstown to where Princes Street meets the A9.
The aim is to connect residential areas, schools, college buildings and retail premises.
Mr Gregory said: "Apparently the plan is to create a total of five 'interventions' with mixed strategic infrastructure, including a segregated cycleway and 'placemaking' on Princes Street, and the 'interventions' could be packaged jointly to create a long 'strategic active travel corridor through the centre of Thurso'.
"I am not entirely sure what is meant by 'interventions', or what 'placemaking', but I will attempt to translate it. I think that the council wants money to build some cycle lanes and paths for pedestrians and wheelchair users, probably with the odd spot where one can sit down, and it would seem that council officers 'seek the green light to go ahead with a range of bids to the Scottish Government to fund measures across the Highlands that are estimated to cost between £97 million and £171 million'.
"This is of course a laudable idea, but it tells us something very interesting. Despite CRR having been told repeatedly for over two years that 'there is no money', it would appear that there is actually a bucketful – it just isn't being made available for roads and pavements, which for the past 100 years or so have, until recently, provided excellent facilities for 'active travel'.
"Unfortunately, Thurso, Wick, our many villages and our rural areas are so neglected that the roads are little more than cart tracks, pedestrians are tripping over and sustaining injury, cyclists like myself have given up using some roads and wheelchair users are placed in considerable danger when attempting to exercise their right to use the existing routes.
"And can I ask how people are supposed to get to the start of the 'strategic active travel corridor' without coming to grief on the potholed and pitted roads and pavements at each end?"
Mr Gregory added: "I quite agree that it would be wonderful to have cycle routes everywhere, and quality footpaths. But the overwhelming feedback received by CRR since this plan was announced in the local press indicates that people have absolutely had enough of the utter devastation of the existing infrastructure and want action immediately to sort it out.
"Here is an analogy: 'If your house roof is falling off, and the foundations are collapsing you do not spend your money on a new conservatory and a patio.'
"Caithness needs about £25 million to rebuild the roads network, and to sort out the pavements to make them safe for pedestrians and wheelchair users. This is not a huge sum – certainly not when viewed in the context of 'bids of up to £171 million'.
"As I said to BBC TV recently, 'concentrate on the basics and forget the vanity projects'."
In all, there are 10 projects for Thurso and two for Wick that could be sent to the government to compete for cash from the Spaces for Everyone and Active Travel Transport Project funds. It is part of a major push on active travel prioritisation by the local authority.