Don't let extra roads cash give unrealistic expectations, warns Caithness councillor
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A Caithness Highland councillor has questioned how much impact recent announcements about extra resources to tackle potholes will have in Caithness.
Matthew Reiss welcomes the £1.8 million extra earmarked to be spent on the county's crumbling local authority-run roads network, as well as the setting up of a council-wide dedicated pothole repair team.
But he cautions against unrealistic expectations about the difference the additional investment will make.
Speaking at the latest meeting of Thurso Community Council, Councillor Reiss pointed out that the amount of repair work is dictated by the available labour.
He said: "There are only a few guys in the two road depots (in Thurso and Wick) and there's only so much tar they can put down on the road.
"There also only needs to be one or two off sick or away on a course and they can't go out.
"The list of repairs is very long and while there's extra money being put up, there's only so much the same number of men can do."
An extra £1.8 million was allocated to both Caithness and Skye, who were the biggest winners from the £7.7 million extra the council is to spend on roads this year.
While acknowledging that other areas of the Highlands had proportionately lost out, Councillor Reiss said far more needs to go on fixing far north roads.
"It's absolutely nowhere near enough given it has to cover new pavements and all the other things that need to be done," he said.
"The men are doing their best but they need more resources."
The Thurso and Caithness West member was also sceptical about the extra benefit Caithness would get from the new rapid response team.
Councillor Reiss said the team has still to be recruited and trained so it is unlikely to be up and running until late summer.
When it comes to Caithness, he said the team would have to borrow the Pothole Pro machine used by the local crews.
Ward colleague Struan Mackie also gave a guarded reaction to the recent announcements.
He said: "There's been a substantial increase in the funding and a suggestion that there's some light at the end of the tunnel but we're waiting to see the details."
Community council secretary Iain Gregory, who co-founded the Caithness Roads Recovery campaign group, said the state of the county's roads remains dire.
He said: "We are getting so many reports coming in every day. It's just incredible.
"People are continuing to suffer appalling damage and expense because of the state of the roads and I fear it's a matter of time before we end up with a tragedy.
"Sooner or later, I'm afraid we're going to end up with one."
