Potholed car park in Thurso town centre ‘looks like an open cast mine’
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A supermarket car park in Thurso is so badly potholed that it is starting to resemble an “open cast mine” and posing a safety hazard to the public, councillors have claimed.
The deteriorating state of the Co-op car park in the town centre is highlighted among a litany of complaints presented to the Highland Council leadership.
Councillors Matthew Reiss and Andrew Jarvie maintain the SNP-led administration has dealt with a number of “serious safety issues” in a “woefully inadequate” way.
They set out their concerns in a letter to Highland Council leader Raymond Bremner. They suggest that the local authority is failing to comply with section one of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, requiring it to “maintain” the roads, including car parks.
Councillor Reiss (Thurso and Northwest Caithness) and Councillor Jarvie (Wick and East Caithness) are part of the five-strong Highland Alliance group of independent councillors.
Claiming that potholes at the Thurso Co-op car park mean the area is “starting to look like an open cast mine”, the pair warn that “the risks to pedestrians, the visually impaired, prams and motorists are stark”.
They tell the council leader: “You kindly agreed to look into this. You will recall that, after two years of asking, the roads department loosely filled several holes as a 'goodwill gesture' several months ago.
“These have now opened up again and other bigger ones have appeared. The council is responsible for the upkeep of the car park as well as roads.”
Councillors Reiss and Jarvie also point to “vast potholes” beside Thurso’s squash courts. They note that the education department is responsible for the upkeep “but, despite repeated requests, no basic work has been carried out”.
They tell Councillor Bremner: “As leader, would you please instruct that these safety-related repairs are carried out now and the wrangling over which department of the council pays is addressed in due course?”
The letter continues: “Given that the latest estimate for the ‘standstill’ cost of maintaining the roads as they currently are is £33,990,000, compared to the previous figure of approximately £26,000,000, could we ask for a costed plan showing how the roads situation will be recovered, given these exceptional figures?
“The numbers of recorded defects have soared in the past year according to the council’s own figures. These potholes represent serious safety issues.
“What has been the administration’s response? In general terms you have maintained the expenditure levels of the last three years and given extra cash to Skye and Caithness, at other areas’ expense. This has been woefully inadequate.”
Councillors Reiss and Jarvie point out that an elderly resident in the Castletown area “feels unable to use her car due to the repeated delays in repairing her road”, and they draw attention to the owner of a camping pod business on the loop road off the A99 at Auckengill who claims the surface is so rutted and full of potholes that it is "falling apart".
After driving on the route himself, Councillor Reiss called it “disgraceful”.
The pair also highlight “increasingly angry complaints” from motorists who, they say, are having claims for compensation rejected by the council. They say the system for processing claims “appears bureaucratic and deeply unpopular” and suggest an independent review “to ensure the spirit of the scheme is adhered to”.
The letter goes on to mention a heavily overgrown hedge on the popular Mall walking route in Thurso.
“It has been uncut for several years which now means it will have to be cut by hand but, partly due to the loss of two jobs caused by cuts, it cannot be done until autumn at the earliest. This is a popular town walk in a conservation area just off the NC500 route.
“The path is also in a poor condition but there appears to be insufficient finance to address this basic matter.”
