Road fault figures show Caithness needs to 'break free from shackles' of Inverness

A call has gone out for Caithness to "break free from the shackles" of the Highland capital after new figures came to light showing the scale of road problems in the county compared with Inverness and other parts of the region.

Campaigner Iain Gregory, co-founder of Caithness Roads Recovery (CRR), claims the far north is being "ignored, marginalised and neglected" and insists Caithness would be better served by having its own local authority.

As reported in Wednesday's Caithness Courier, local Highland councillor Matthew Reiss declared that "Caithness is losing out" after statistics emerged listing reported road defects across different areas. Caithness had more than Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber put together.

An internal Highland Council report drawn up at the end of September showed that Caithness had a total of 4754 "outstanding work instructions" compared with 2043 for Inverness, 2173 for Lochaber and 137 for Nairn.

Councillor Reiss, the independent member for Thurso and Northwest Caithness, claimed the statistics prove that the authority's funding formula "is not working and hasn't done for a long time".

Mr Gregory said the figures highlighted a "huge disparity", with Caithness "quite clearly being in the worst situation of any area in the region".

He said: "Since we launched Caithness Roads Recovery in early 2021 we have had incredible support from the public, and CRR is now one of the leading social campaign organisations in the north. But the response from Highland Council and Holyrood has been very much less than satisfactory – and the situation is now beyond crisis point.

"The roads infrastructure is collapsing around us, and things are now so bad that local people are resorting to carrying out their own repairs. As we have said from day one, this dire situation is a symptom of a much deeper malaise – Caithness is ignored, marginalised and neglected."

He went on: "We need to remember that these figures relate only to 'work instructions' – in other words, cases where work is actually planned. We believe that the total number of defects is massively higher.

"The figures speak for themselves. Inverness has 1027.1km of roads and only 2043 work instructions. Nairn has 308km and only 137 instructions.

"Caithness has 761.9km and an incredible 4754 instructions.

"In other words, the county has roughly three times the level of issues per mile compared with the position in the council heartlands.

"To read Councillor Reiss's comments on the very same day we learned that projects worth half a billion pounds are planned for Inverness 'as part of an ambitious vision for the city by 2035' is infuriating.

"It is even more so when we hear of the vast sums allocated to Inverness via the Levelling Up Fund and the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal, which was worth £315 million, with only – as I recall – £250,000 coming to Caithness. The 'City Deal' would be a far more accurate description.

"This latest news simply reinforces the case that it is time for Caithness to break free from the shackles of the faraway city and demand independence, with our own council and local health trust.

"CRR set out intending to be a reasonable and reasoned campaign, seeking only to get a fair share for the county, and we will continue to take this approach. But we have constantly maintained our position that Caithness has been exceptionally badly treated.

"We now have hard facts – from the council itself – and the indefensible can no longer be defended. Caithness matters, Caithness people matter, and CRR will keep on saying so."

Ross and Cromarty had the highest number of defects at 5323. However, as Caithness has a total road length of 761.9km and Ross and Cromarty has 1653.5km, Caithness has a higher rate of defects at 6.2 per kilometre compared with 3.2.

Councillor Reiss said: "The figures make it clear that Caithness is losing out. It's not like these are my figures that I've dreamt up – this is coming from the council's own people.”

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