Complaints over the state of Caithness roads are – alas – nothing new
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Thurso's Heritage by a Thirsa Loon
This month I thought I would look at something more topical. Road users have suffered vehicle damage for some years from dreaded potholes.
By many accounts, Caithness seems to be in a dismal state, worse than other regions. There have been numerous public complaints about the state of our roads and by some of our elected officials in the press and social media.
Looking back at some complaints I have seen in the past, this is what I have come across.
One complaint was about the “neglect” of the roads and how the surface was poorly patched and “blown by frost….”
Then another mentions the road from Thurso to Skinnet “is not very good,” but it could be repaired at little expense.
The upper part of Princes Street was so bad that it was “very dangerous”. A large amount of patching was required on the roads, but the wet weather of January put this on hold. By the second week of February, Shore Street was tidied up with chips to fill the holes in the road.
Things were getting so bad that the lack of road maintenance saw “the Thurso people were wading up to their ankles in mud”.
It was reported that “anyone going about Thurso could see the roads were getting worse and worse”. The authority would have to consider some scheme of maintenance and upkeep of the roads…
Recent tarring saw an enormous improvement to High Street, where the roads had many “potholes” for years and were dangerous to traffic.
At one council meeting, there was a debate about whether they should purchase a road roller. One councillor reminded the members that Thurso had practically nothing as far as the equipment was concerned. And another elected official stated, “before we can get a road repaired, another one requires attention. We will never get to the end of our road repairs at the rate we are going. I think a road roller would be a good investment.”
One council official said "it would benefit the town to have its own equipment for the job".
“We have a number of side streets which are a danger to pedestrians.” he said, “If we possessed a roller, we could do the repair work as and when it was required instead of having to wait to hire one from a contractor.” As an example of this delay, an uncompleted road at the harbour lay for weeks because no roller could be procured.
Another council employee said that 80 per cent of the roads in the Thurso burgh required resurfacing and repairing, but regarding the road roller, one official said, “it is no use getting a roller unless you get the accessories and the materials to work with.”
These comments could be from a conversation last week, month, or year. In fact, they are from complaints about the roads from 229 years ago onwards. They date from 1794, 1798, 1874, 1891, 1925, 1927 and the last two from 1949.
They do say history repeats itself, but you should learn from it to avoid future mistakes. Today we shouldn’t hear complaints about the risk of life, vehicle repairs and lack of equipment and materials to repair our failing infrastructure.
Unfortunately, some things never change, and Caithness and its population continue to suffer.
- To get in touch, contact thursoheritage1@gmail.com
