‘The situation in Caithness is absolutely dire’: Highland Council needs Holyrood to act over roads, says campaigner
Caithness campaigner Iain Gregory has called for “urgent intervention” from the Scottish Government to help bring roads up to acceptable standards.
He insisted the level of capital investment needed in the Highland Council area is “way beyond the financial means” of the local authority.
Mr Gregory’s assessment is in contrast to the viewpoint of John Swinney, who informed a news outlet this week that local government in Scotland has been “adequately and fully funded” to tackle potholes and other issues.
The First Minister was speaking to the BBC after the UK government announced an extra £500m for road maintenance in England.
Mr Gregory, co-founder of Caithness Roads Recovery (CRR), said: “The most recent estimate of the cost of repairing the road network across Highland was obtained by Rhoda Grant MSP via a Freedom of Information request in late 2023, and the sum quoted by Highland Council was an astonishing £233 million.
“Caithness has approximately 11 per cent of the total roads length in Highland, and the condition of our roads is far and away the worst anywhere in the region, so it is quite clear that we require a capital investment – immediately – of at least £25 million. In view of the utterly desperate state of the roads locally, the true figure is probably closer to £30 million.”
Mr Gregory noted that the capital allocation for road maintenance and repairs in Caithness for 2025/26 has been set at £3,162,594.
Councillor Ron Gunn, who chairs the local authority’s Caithness committee, admitted in January: “We know that we don’t have all the funding we need to do everything we want… We will continue to do the best we can with the resources we have.”
Mr Gregory went on: “Since CRR was formed in 2021, we have repeatedly pointed out – in print, on radio and on TV – that the situation in Caithness is absolutely dire, and it is time that the truth was spelled out in very simple terms.
“No matter what politicians may say in news releases, nothing is going to alter the fact that the level of capital investment required to put things right is way beyond the financial means of Highland Council, and urgent intervention from the Scottish Government is essential.
“It is now vital that Highland Council put politics aside, publicly admit that they simply cannot deal with the situation, and call upon Holyrood to act.”
Mr Gregory added: “When one considers the unimaginably large sums of money involved in the renewables blitz currently engulfing Caithness, is it really too much to ask for £30 million or so to be invested in the county, to at least bring us up to the basic standards enjoyed elsewhere in Scotland?”
Highland Council leader Raymond Bremner, an SNP member for Wick and East Caithness, was invited to comment on whether he agreed with Mr Swinney, his party leader, that local Scottish local authorities have enough money to fix the roads.
Mr Swinney said his administration was providing an additional £1bn for councils in 2025/26.
The First Minister told BBC Scotland News: “We fulfilled the request of local government for a real-terms increase in their core funding, so they could tackle issues such as potholes and other issues.
“The Scottish Government has adequately and fully funded local government to make sure these issues, such as potholes, can be tackled in our local communities so that we can invest in our public infrastructure and meet the needs of the public.”