Road damage is 'number one concern in the county', Caithness councillor tells new MSP
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Newly elected MSP Maree Todd has been told that the state of the roads in Caithness has become "the number one concern in the county".
Highland councillor Matthew Reiss called on her to use her influence in the Scottish Government to seek financial support to fix extensive potholes and other damage, warning that "this cannot wait".
Writing to Ms Todd on her first working day as the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Councillor Reiss also drew attention to the impact on road surfaces of heavy vehicles associated with timber and renewable energy projects.
Councillor Reiss, formerly a senior police officer, represents Thurso and Northwest Caithness on Highland Council.
He told Ms Todd: "I require to bring to your attention the desperately concerning state of local non-trunk roads in parts of Caithness. As a former police officer I am anxious about the damage/risks to vehicles from the extensive and substantial damage existing now on our roads.
"It is hard to overstate my concerns about this and I believe it has probably become the number one concern in the county."
He highlighted the Caithness Roads Recovery campaign and pointed to the "extensive array of videos and photographs" on the group's Facebook page.
"Better still would be a visit in person to see the problem yourself, unless you have done this already," Councillor Reiss went on. "One general area I would highlight is Houstry/Halkirk/Loch More/Calder/Glengolly. Unfortunately there are many more areas of concern."
He sent the new MSP a copy of Caithness Committee papers from April containing a list of 140 road repair schemes. "At best maybe a third of these will be completed in this financial year, meanwhile all the other roads continue to deteriorate," he stated.
"This list of repairs illustrates in stark terms the daunting scale of the crisis.
"Highland Council is putting an extraordinary extra £10m of capital into the roads this year and next. This money could have been spent on many other issues but must be spent now, on grounds of basic safety. In 2016 the council also started allocating additional funds to the roads, recognising the looming problems."
Councillor Reiss flagged up the council’s legal responsibility under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, Section 1, to "maintain” local roads. "Despite the massive increase in capital spend we are nowhere near what is required – indeed in 2019 the sum required within Highland to resolve the repairs was £194m," he said. "That was two winters ago.
"The Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey will give you a better idea of the gravity of our situation. Our roads crews have worked tirelessly over the winter keeping roads open and are now working on road repairs across the county.
"Your government has responded to enquiries from Caithness Roads Recovery and others about government financial assistance to the council by effectively stating it is purely a council responsibility.
"Given the ice-cold reality of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, I feel this approach is no longer realistic, regarding the obvious safety concerns. Our former MSP Gail Ross may share my view on this, having told me by email on March 2 that the financial situation facing Highland Council had 'gone past the stage of what they are able to provide'.
"As she lives in Caithness she was able to easily reach this conclusion, radical as it is.
"I am hoping you will be able to use your influence to bring, rapidly, some financial support/resolution. In my opinion this cannot wait – the problem has developed over perhaps 20 years of different council administrations when other pressing financial concerns took priority, such as education, grass-cutting and toilets."
Councillor Reiss told Ms Todd: "Looking to the future, the current extra funds available for roads damaged by timber extraction are woefully inadequate, whilst the wear and tear caused by the vehicles linked to the many renewables projects has to be repaired by the council, in reality. A roads engineer has previously told me that one HGV causes as much damage as 1000 cars. These are matters the Scottish Government could address."
He added: "The urgency of the situation cannot be stressed enough. In particular we have only a few short summer months to do the programme of surface dressing. This cheaper maintenance work protects roads from water ingress and subsequent much more costly repairs."
Ms Todd said: "I thank Councillor Matthew Reiss for his letter on this vitally important matter and I will get back to him as soon as possible. There is an urgent need to improve the state of the roads infrastructure in Caithness.
“I wrote to the leader of the Highland Council, Councillor Margaret Davidson, on April 5 and disappointingly I'm still awaiting a response."
