Confusion reigns as busy Wick junction is left without traffic lights for four days – who takes responsibility for fixing them?
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Traffic lights at a main junction through Wick town centre were out of operation for most of last week with possible confusion as to who takes responsibility for their maintenance being a reason for the delay.
On Wednesday (March 9) at around 6pm, the lights on the junction of Cliff Road and Francis Street had malfunctioned and gone out, with the issue being reported to the Highland Council that same evening. It took until Sunday (March 13) for an engineer to attend the site and finally fix the problem at around 5pm – a full four days with the traffic lights out and vehicles driving through the busy junction with no management system in operation. Adding to the confusion, due to recent roadworks at the junction, there are no painted lines to highlight which drivers should give way.
While Highland Council take responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep for the A99 road from Wick to John O'Groats, the route from Latheron to Wick at the junction of the traffic lights is maintained by BEAR Scotland which works for Transport Scotland.
The Roader's Digest SABRE Wiki website says: "The A99 meets the eastern end of the A882 at a signal-controlled crossroads. This is the end of the A99's trunk road status; beyond here it is a non-primary route maintained by Highland Council."
When contacted about the issue, Highland Council said that the A99 is not its responsibility and is a trunk road. A council spokesperson said: “The Highland Council received two out of hours calls about traffic lights on the A99 in Wick on the evening of 9th March. As they are Trunk Road traffic signals the information was passed to Transport Scotland. Our local team also reported this to BEAR Scotland.”
The local authority directed the paper to contact Transport Scotland – the national transport agency for Scotland.
However, when Transport Scotland was initially contacted on the matter a media contact said: "This is one for the local authority to provide an update on." When further asked to clarify the matter and asking if the council takes responsibility for the traffic lights the contact said: "I believe so, if not maybe the operating company for that area?"
The operating company, BEAR Scotland North West Trunk Road Unit, was contacted and sent a "contract definition" of its maintenance on the A99 as detailed below:
A99 Latheron - Wick Trunk Road from but excluding its junction with the A9 at Latheron leading generally north-eastwards for a distance of 27 kilometres or thereby to its junction with the A882 at but excluding the junction at Thurso Street/Dempster Street Wick.
In terms of traffic signals, BEAR currently maintains two sites as per below:
A99 Francis street/Dempster
A99 Francis street near Northcote street
The media contact said that an additional crossing in Wick was recently installed by Highland Council but had "not yet been adopted".
The BEAR Scotland spokesperson added: “Following notification about the traffic lights being out of operation at Cliff Road we sent our incident response team to confirm the issues with the lights. Following the initial assessment, we then informed our specialist sub-contractor who later attended the site to carry out repairs.”
Police Scotland was also contacted about the matter to ascertain if its Wick officers helped with traffic management at the junction but said there was no local involvement.
