Badenoch and Strathspey could be big loser in Highland Council road repair funding

Highland Council has revealed which areas will benefit from its new strategic roads fund that was announced in the budget to target the worst routes in the north which has the potential to be very divisive among councillors.

Caithness and Skye came out on top with a funding allocation worth almost £3.6 million covering more than 200,000 square metres on 62 roads with both areas considered blackspots for poor road surfaces.

But Badenoch and Strathspey will get just £127,875 worth of work and 4125 square metres of coverage.

The enormous Ross and Cromarty area will get 65,400 square metres costing £1.3 million.

Inverness will see work to just eight of its worst roads totalling 30,405 square metres costing £999,900; Nairn £134,323 for 4333 square metres; Lochaber £695,336 for 22,133 square metres and Sutherland will get £834,950 for 41,650 square metres of road.

But first it has to pass the environment and infrastructure committee which is being discussed this afternoon and privately some councillors feel that allocations are not entirely fair.

According to Elizabeth Maciver the principal engineer for transport planning and roads explained: “For the £7.7 million strategic allocation, the service was asked to produce a further list of road surface treatment schemes, utilising engineering judgement and local knowledge to determine which projects were to be included.

“The project list has been compiled in conjunction with each road operations manager and technical staff, to identify those which they could undertake in 2023/24.

“A diverse approach was taken, looking at urban and rural localities as well as all classes of roads, including where representations from members or the public had been received.”

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