Road campaigners say there is support for breakaway county council as Caithness has been 'abandoned'
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Road campaigners claim there is growing public support for the idea of Caithness going it alone as a local authority because of the way the county has been "abandoned and ignored".
Iain Gregory and Helen Campbell, of Caithness Roads Recovery, say more and more people in the area would favour a breakaway from Highland Council against a backdrop of anger and frustration over potholes and other damage.
The campaigners warn that lives could be lost without major investment in a full programme of repairs – and insist that some local residents are becoming "prisoners in their own homes" because the worst-affected routes are felt to be unsafe to drive.
Caithness Roads Recovery recently compiled a detailed dossier on the extent of crumbling roads in the area and spoke of the "huge disparity" in spending between the Inverness area and Caithness.
The document was sent to senior political figures and officials including Prime Minster Boris Johnson, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack and Chancellor Rishi Sunak as well as Highland Council's chief executive, Donna Manson.
"We have now been running this campaign for five months, so we are quite used to the apparent reluctance of senior figures to respond to us," Mr Gregory said. "We are not exactly overwhelmed with replies so far.
"One might imagine that Caithness has been neglected for so long that it is felt safe to continue to do so in the hope that we will quietly go away, and humbly accept the crumbs from the rich man's table. We won't.
"Caithness is going to get what it is entitled to, and more and more locals are saying that perhaps it is time to break away and have our own Caithness County Council once again."
Mrs Campbell said: “I just can’t believe how anyone thinks that our roads are okay as they are and that we should continue to accept the status quo. They aren’t safe, they continue to get worse, yet still no emergency programme and timeline has been communicated on how our roads will be recovered and made safe again.
"The people of Caithness have been very patient and understanding for a long time now, but this has run out and we want a return to safe and robust roads that will take us well into the future.
"We shouldn’t have to result to a full-on campaign like this to get the authorities to listen and take action – it’s no wonder many locals feel that Caithness has been abandoned and ignored."
The campaigners continue to receive complaints and reports from the public, with recent photos showing damaged vehicles including a holidaymaker’s classic Harley-Davidson motorcycle and bicycles with burst tyres. Motorists have also posted videos about problems they have encountered.
Mrs Campbell added: "Safety should be the priority here and at the moment it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Too many people continue to tell us how unsafe they feel driving, how they avoid going out, how uncomfortable their journeys are due to health issues, and how many are becoming prisoners in their own homes – their words, not mine.
"And we are receiving stories about near misses due to oncoming vehicles swerving to miss potholes.
"It’s very sad to hear how badly our roads are affecting people’s stress levels and their mental health and wellbeing. This isn’t right – we deserve better than this.”
Mr Gregory said: "We have told the council and the Scottish and UK governments – repeatedly – that unless they get on with it there will be a tragedy. Highland Council has a duty in terms of Section 1 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to 'maintain the roads', and 'maintain' means just that – keep in good and safe order.
"If they do not, the Scottish Government cannot simply say 'it is up to the council'. They can and must intervene."
Caithness Roads Recovery will be reporting soon on meetings with MSPs Maree Todd (SNP, Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) and Rhoda Grant (Labour, Highlands and Islands). Mr Gregory and Mrs Campbell say that unless a "clear plan" is drawn up in the near future they will look at lodging formal complaints with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) against Highland Council and the Scottish Government.
The SPSO is the final stage for complaints about local authorities, the Scottish Government and its agencies and departments as well as other public bodies.
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “The capital element of the roads investment budget for 2021/22 was approved at the economy and infrastructure committee on February 4, 2021. There are some 6771 kilometres of regional roads network across Highland. The allocation for structural road maintenance is distributed between the operational areas as a percentage, assessed by the outputs from the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey and road length.
"With the additional capital investment made by the council, the total capital budget allocation for Inverness area roads was £2,229,497 and for Caithness it was £1,202,581 for the year 2021/22. These include a ward allocation for councillors to decide where on the adopted road network the funding was to be spent. Caithness has 761.9km of adopted roads, and the Inverness area has 1027.0km.
“The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 states that a local roads authority shall manage and maintain roads that are on its list of public roads. The act does not state that roads are to be kept entirely free of defects as it would not be possible to do so. Additionally, local authorities also have fiscal responsibilities and are required to spend within their limited budgets with the resources available.”
