Caithness has been forgotten, says local businessman after fixing potholed road at his own expense
A local businessman has described Caithness as "the forgotten area" after taking matters into his own hands over the damage caused by potholes.
Gordon Robertson was so fed up with the state of the public road leading to his home and quarry at Barrock, and the toll it was taking on vehicles, that he set about fixing the worst stretch himself.
He reckons the ongoing resurfacing work would have cost around £6000 had he been paying someone to do it.
Mr Robertson operates Barrock Quarry and Gordon Robertson Plant Hire.
“We have a quarry up there and we were breaking springs on the lorries," he said this week. "We tried claiming and the council wouldn't pay.
“I've got a business to run and it was at the stage where people weren't wanting to come to the quarry.
“We just couldn't live with it any longer. I said to my wife, I'm just going to do this myself. We've tried and tried the council over the years and they just do nothing.”
The length of road repaired by Mr Robertson at his own expense runs to more than 600 metres and he has used between 400 and 500 tonnes of materials on it.
“The stretch I've done is the worst stretch," he explained. “If I'd got a contractor in to do it, I'd be paying £5000 to £6000 to get what I've done.
“Obviously we're not putting tar on it so it's an ongoing thing. We've been doing this for the last year and a half.
“It's in our own interests. We're just destroying our cars, our trucks.
“We have four lorries on the road that we're paying road tax for. We've got to have our vehicles all roadworthy, and the roads are not worthy of running them on.
"It's like going back to a Third World country, almost.”
Mr Robertson added: “The road was originally ours and the council adopted it in 1993/94.
“We spoke to our solicitor about it and he said, 'You shouldn't have to do anything to the road.' I said, 'Well, what do you do?'
“It's no good for other folk in the community that use it. I have a quarry, and yes it has cost me. I don't mind doing things that help the community because I've lived there all my life.
“I said to one of the council boys, we're going to have to do something because if you get a broken front spring on a six-wheeler lorry you're speaking about £700 or £800.
"We put a claim in to the council, we had three broken springs. We had all the photos, the evidence of the potholes – we even had the evidence that it was a new spring that broke – and they still threw it out and wouldn't pay it."
Mr Robertson is concerned about the decline in rural communities and believes more should be done to force wind farm developers to pay for road maintenance.
“When I was at Crossroads Primary School there were 68 pupils and now there are eight. It's no wonder people are not wanting to move up to the area," he said.
"The total lack of investment in our road infrastructure is affecting everyone, from locals to tourists, or anyone trying to get on with their business.
“Caithness is just getting like the forgotten area. Your whole society breaks down if you don't have roads.”
Along with plant hire and quarry operations, Mr Robertson carries out a lot of agricultural drainage work.
Mr Robertson has been in touch with Iain Gregory, co-founder of Caithness Roads Recovery, who visited the Barrock area recently along with Highland councillor Matthew Reiss.
Mr Gregory said: "When we have reached the point where hard-working local business people in rural Caithness are suffering huge costs, when their businesses are placed at risk, and when there is no option but to spend thousands of pounds to provide some form of access to their premises, it really is time for Highland Council and the Scottish Government to wake up and take urgent action."
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “The Caithness area roads capital programme for 2022/23 was approved by members in February 2022, details of which are at www.highland.gov.uk."