Highland councillors on collision course over pot holes
A row has broken out over the formula which could be used to dish out cash from a £2 million pot to fix potholes on crumbling Highland roads.
Highland Council agreed last month to spend the money from budget reserves to carry out badly needed road repairs and drainage work on the network.
On Thursday, members of the transport, environmental and community services (TECS) committee will be asked to agree where the cash should be divvied up but councillors could be on a collision course.
Officials have suggested the cash should be allocated to each ward with a flat payment of £25,000, while the rest of the money is calculated by the number of kilometres of road in that area.
As Badenoch and Strathspey has 386.4kms of roads it would be entitled to £83,097 usig the formula plus the flat payment of £25,000, making £108,097 or 5.73% of the £2million allocation.
Mr John MacLennan, the senior service support officer, has recommended that the two Sutherland wards - which have 823 miles of road - should receive £335,205 for repairs.
But that has angered Inverness councillors who claim the city could lose out to other Highland areas which do not have the same volume of traffic on its roads.
The Inverness Ness-side ward, which has a road network of only 33 miles, may only receive £36,484, despite having the pothole scarred Stratherrick Road, which has been described by local councillor Norrie Donald as the worst surface in the Highland Capital.
The recommended amount for repairs to the city’s roads comes to £267,677 but that is £67,000 less than what Sutherland could pick up.
Councillor Donald has called for the cash to go towards the areas which have the most traffic and poorest surfaces.
"They need to look at the roads which are being used the most, I think that would be the way forward," he said. "I know a lot of my city colleagues are not happy about this."
Another TECS committee member, Councillor Roy Pedersen (Inverness South), also criticised the formula and said he would argue against it.
"Inverness has the bulk of the population and the traffic is at its heaviest," he said. "It is not to deny Sutherland but when a pothole appears it deteriorates quite rapidly in Inverness because of the traffic."
Ross-shire councillor Maxine Smith, who is the SNP’s Group’s TECS spokeswoman, said the formula was the wrong method and a "big mistake".
"Each ward’s roads are in a different state of repair, some far worse than others irrespective of the length of roads," she said. "For instance some roads in the wards with the longest road lengths are sitting at a very high standard of repair already and to give those areas an extra share of the cake is not the best way forward.
"The only way this is going to work is to ask the area engineers to bid into the main pot on a needs basis, a priority basis that shows the state of roads in each area - they will not be the same from ward to ward. Having more mileage of roads does not mean having more potholes or drainage work to do, as there may be less people using those roads."
Despite the prospective money which could be available to his ward, North West and Central Sutherland Councillor George Farlow also said the cash allocation should be "needs-led".
But his ward colleague Lib-Dem councillor Robbie Rowantree said Sutherland deserved the cash because the travel needs of people living in remote rural areas which lacked public transport and depended on roads were just as great as the city.