Total payout for pothole damage to vehicles in Ross-shire leaves Alness motorist 'gobsmacked' amid calls for action over 'disgraceful' state of roads
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ROSS-SHIRE motorists claimed almost £50,000 from Highland Council last year for repairs to vehicles damaged by potholes.
The total payout left the man whose freedom of information request revealed the payout "gob-smacked" – and convinced the county has the worst roads in the region.
Allan McLeod of Firhill in Alness was prompted to query the total between April 2020 and April 2021 after making multiple complaints about "unavoidable potholes" in the estate where he lives.
It was on the third occasion that his car was damaged that he finally made a modest £134 claim for the replacement of a spring broken as his car came to a juddering halt in one of the "craters".
He said: "I have made numerous complaints to the council for over a year now regarding the dreadful state of the roads close to my house but still it's never been repaired. All I ever hear is: “We’ll pass it on”.
"You see cars slowing down and swerving about trying to avoid hitting these potholes some of which are large and very deep. Clearly, this is a safety issue for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike. Highland Council needs to get a grip over the pothole problems in Ross-shire before someone is seriously injured or even killed.
"Looking at the total cost of claims it's clear that Ross-shire roads are simply the worst roads in the area."
He termed the state of roads "disgraceful" and speculated that it was cheaper to fork out for repair claims than deal with the problem.
He said the problem is mirrored in estates in Alness and Invergordon and beyond.
He said: "Making sure people can get about safely day to day needs to be a priority."
Claims in the Inverness area over the same period totalled just £451 while £3765 were notched up in Caithness and Sutherland.
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “Our roads teams across Highland, including Ross-shire, are working very hard to catch up on the roads maintenance programmes in these difficult times to maintain the council’s 6771 kilometres of regional roads network across local areas.
“Between March 2020 and July 2020 the construction industry effectively was shut down due to Covid-19 and our roads operatives were restricted to essential works only. Some roads staff were also absent from work due to shieldin. In addition, due to the predicted overall pressure on the council budget, due to the impact of Covid and loss of income, capital budgets including roads were not fully released until October 2020, by which time the surface dressing season was lost, and there was insufficient time left before the onset of winter to undertake re-surfacing programmes.
“The capital element of the roads investment budget for 2021/22 was approved at the economy and infrastructure committee on February 4. 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. Councillors can also decide what their ward allocations are for the adopted road network in their areas.
“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."
PICTURES: Ross-shire road repair progress flagged by Highland Council
JCB shows off 'revolutionary' pothole repair technique
