Highlands' 'crumbling' roads a priority for council leader in waiting
Extra cash will be invested almost immediately into the region’s crumbling roads under new plans by the woman at the helm of Highland Council.
Margaret Davidson wants to plough part a £5.7 million council under-spend into surface dressing work.
And she said the money could be committed at the end of the month.
Councillor Davidson, who is the new Independent group leader and is expected to become the council leader replacing new MP Drew Hendry, said roads were among her top priorities.
She said: "We had an under-spend this year and I would want some of that assigned to roads for an immediate difference because the guys are out there on the ground just now doing surface dressing. If we give them additional money it means they can go further. Now would be a good time to do that."
She was unable to say how much of the £5.7 million would be poured into surface dressing works.
She added: "I doubt if we can put all of it into the roads because I am being told by our finance officers that there are other additional pressures. We are hearing about teachers’ pension settlements and it looks as if it will be quite a burden."
Highland now has the third highest depreciation rate in road conditions in Scotland.
An earlier meeting of the committee was told the council would need to spend £156 million to bring all roads up to standard.
And earlier this year, the annual Scottish road maintenance survey of 1,845 miles of road revealed more than 36 per cent of the routes across the Highlands needed urgent repairs.
Donnie Kerr, Inverness Central councillor, said faded road lines were an added safety concern.
He said drivers were having difficulty seeing the painted lines separating lanes on city roads and it was becoming extremely dangerous.
He said: "In Inverness you have got a considerable volume of traffic and those road markings are seriously in need of replacement. There is extensive works needing to be done as this has been neglected for quite a few years."
William Gilfillan, community services director, said a new team was being set up in his department to look specifically at road repair issues.
The council contracts an outside company to paint white centre lines on the roads.
The Independents took power at the end of last week after a tense eight days in talks with the other groups.
Under their remit, the role of provost and Inverness City Leader are to be re-merged. It will see a return of the centuries-old tradition where the provost was the head of Inverness.
The role was split in 2012 to separate the ceremonial provost duties from the hard-nosed political role of the City Leader.
Helen Carmichael, Independent councillor for Aird and Loch Ness, is in line for the new joint provost and City Leader post.
She is expected to be named provost and City Leader at an emergency meeting on Thursday.
