richardj
17-Jan-16, 01:18
I am constantly annoyed / dismayed at the state of the roads around Caithness, they are full of potholes and I am continuingly hitting potholes when I am driving between Thurso and Wick, other roads may be as bad. The damage caused to my old car and to the car tyres is worrying as it may lead to a future accident. This now seems to be a National problem throughout Britain according to the RAC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35322313
Another serious issue in Wick is the lack of clear road markings at certain junctions, the one that I think of as the most dangerous is the road (or lack of clear road markings) at the Tesco entrance/exit, especially in wet weather when the road marking at the exit from Tesco can hardly be seen. This is a problem that will lead to a serious accident, it is just waiting to happen, especially with visitors to the area. What I mean is when you drive down the short slope to the junction you cannot clearly see where you should stop to give way to oncoming traffic.
As we pay around 75% of our car fuel bill in tax each time we fill up surely we should not have roads that are worse than I have seen elsewhere around the World. We have roads like a banana republic.
Highland Council may not be the ones that should be blamed for this as the Council have not been able to increase Rates since 2007 due to the SNP policy of forcing Councils to not increase Rates. Now while I have appreciated this capping of Rates in the past, if this has led to the poor state of our Roads then I for one think it is time the Council were given more money to get them fixed as people's lives are risk due to the mess they are in at the moment.
Another serious issue in Wick is the lack of clear road markings at certain junctions, the one that I think of as the most dangerous is the road (or lack of clear road markings) at the Tesco entrance/exit, especially in wet weather when the road marking at the exit from Tesco can hardly be seen. This is a problem that will lead to a serious accident, it is just waiting to happen, especially with visitors to the area. What I mean is when you drive down the short slope to the junction you cannot clearly see where you should stop to give way to oncoming traffic.
As we pay around 75% of our car fuel bill in tax each time we fill up surely we should not have roads that are worse than I have seen elsewhere around the World. We have roads like a banana republic.
Highland Council may not be the ones that should be blamed for this as the Council have not been able to increase Rates since 2007 due to the SNP policy of forcing Councils to not increase Rates. Now while I have appreciated this capping of Rates in the past, if this has led to the poor state of our Roads then I for one think it is time the Council were given more money to get them fixed as people's lives are risk due to the mess they are in at the moment.