Post on Caithness Roads….

[The Horseman]

The above was deleted by me!
Just carry on the same way for the next 100 years.
I had intended to leave Mr. Fernie’s ‘Official Take’ on what I said, but accidentally deleted it.
It seems no one is to blame for the problems you face.

Mr. Fernie gave his ‘Official Answer’, as per The Political Climate……. Thank you.

[Bill Fernie]

All is not lost - it can be resurrected if you wish........

A blame game does not solve the problems of the roads. The problems may lie in the ever reducing budgets.

The problems have not suddenly arisen. They are the result over decades of lack of resources to carry out enough maintenance. That equally applies to many of our public buildings.

[The Horseman]

Doesn’t matter. There were mistakes made….

A quote that tells the story…..’We cannot undo the past, the future is ours to envisage’…..

And…..There are great things done in Caithness..e.g. The resurrection of Latheron Cemetery…how lovely now!…By The People!

[The Horseman]

Mr. Fernie……On second thoughts perhaps you could Re -Post your reply to me……Re: Caithness Roads.
It will surely give people an idea who is responsible for what, and why things are a mess, then perhaps ‘an avenue’ to seek further monies.
You did I think highlight ‘The Lack of Funding’!
Thankx……..

[Goodfellers]

I missed the original post.

But before anyone jumps in and blames Brexit for ALL Scotlands woes, here's an article from before Brexit kicking in and interestingly, a candidate for FM was Transport Minister at the time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36964236

[Goodfellers]

Another interesting read as to why Scotlands roads are worse than Englands...spoiler, it's the SNP governments fault https://www.highwaysindustry.com/sco...than-englands/

[The Horseman]

Another interesting read as to why Scotlands roads are worse than Englands...spoiler, it's the SNP governments fault https://www.highwaysindustry.com/sco...than-englands/

No mention was made of Brexit.

Unfortunately I deleted Mr. Fernie’s. Post along with mine.
I have asked him to re-instate his, and if he wants to he can do the same with mine he can. I blame Councils etc.
I seems he says it’s a matter of Funding!
But in life we do what with what we are given…..
One of my main ‘beefs’ is The 635,000 mobility cars given out in the UK, sometimes 2 in a family get them. Everything is supplied! And all the waste…Mr Fernie disagrees.


The ‘Jist’ of the matter is it appears, that no one is to blame.
I have worked for a bit with it’s roots in the British

[Goodfellers]

The problem in Scotland is we have a far left government which seems to think throwing money at the poor is a fantastic idea. It's not, when it's at the expensive of everything else. Even poor people need a good road system.

Don't get me started on the mobility car issue, we all know there are a huge number of people who abuse the system. The CAB activly encourage the people they help to 'massage' the truth to get the top rates of PIP/ADP.

[The Horseman]

The problem in Scotland is we have a far left government which seems to think throwing money at the poor is a fantastic idea. It's not, when it's at the expensive of everything else. Even poor people need a good road system.

Don't get me started on the mobility car issue, we all know there are a huge number of people who abuse the system. The CAB activly encourage the people they help to 'massage' the truth to get the top rates of PIP/ADP.

********** Yes I know of 2! One goes to Europe twice a year!…

[Bill Fernie]

Original posts from Horseman and Bill Fernie response

Caithness Roads….14 February 2023

I continually see the comments and pictures on the Dis-repair of the North of Scotland roads, particularly Caithness.
Over the past 40+ years of ‘travelling back’, I was amazed at the number of Town and Village name signs. I think once I counted 3 on each end of Dornoch. Many Villages were the same. I took pictures of them and got a price, and some were costing Hundreds of £s each!
In addition….the speed signs…sometime 2/3 on each side of the roads, with other ‘pointy’ ones were littered along the roads.
Once there was construction at Berriedale, and the Warning signs were every 50 yards with many speed signs!

I asked at that time on here and was told that, at one time there was copious amounts of money, and instead of ‘that rainy day thingy’, the Councils just went out an blew the money on signs!
So now you are those days of need, and cannot even fix the huge holes.

Methinks it is time that the Councillors who make such decisions, be monitored more closely.
I don't know who funds and subsidizes the building of hundreds of unneeded windmills, and ‘Wave Therapy’ in the Pentland Firth, but someone has to do something! The past cannot be regained, but the future is now, and wasting money on the above projects, where the Windmills are not needed, and The Wave Generators are experimental, should be seriously investigated.

One of the Detractors/statements/recommendations where Wave Power experiments should not be used, is in Extreme TIDES and WINDS…. …..The Pentland Firth. These experiments are being conducted around The World, in Saner conditions, and still they as yet, cannot be perfected.
Someone should find out how much Subsidized Money is given out in The North for another ‘hair brained’ idea. I’ll bet you are unable to fund out! All is hidden with your Councils!
Food for Thot!

Addendum……..A story from Way Back…..A friend and myself in our Teens were driving into Wick. We were stopped by the Polis at the Cemetery. They had some new fangled speed indicator. Said One Bobby……You were speeding over 30!…Do you know the speed. We looked at him and he asked us to go back and look at the signs….. so my friend who was ‘smarter’ than me…looked at the 30 mph signs on each side of the road and said…30 and 30 makes 60!
Take it from me, he nor I, ever said that again….. Summary Justice at it’s best!

Last edited by The Horseman; 14-Feb-23 at 01:20.


Bill Fernie 14 February 2023
Without getting into all of your points can I remind you that no council is responsible for the road you mention. The road is the responsibility of Transport Scotland that comes under the Scottish Government. The signage on the A9 is not for the council to decide.

Transport Scotland deals with the trunk road network and councils deal with the rest.

On windmills without getting into the argument for and against on the siting of them they do supply an increasing amount of our energy in the UK.

Many signs are erected for safety reasons or to ensure people have directions.

I do not believe anyone is proposing to use wave generators now after having them tested extensively in Orkney.

Things have moved on and the main thinking is around floating turbines and underwater tidal generators. Of course land based turbines are mainly what we have with many more on the way.

The days of subsidies for wind are now mainly in the past as they are and have been for sometime immensely profitable - at our cost of course.

None of the above is hidden by the council as it mainly is not in their remit apart from the planning applications.

[Corky Smeek]

The problem in Scotland is we have a far left government which seems to think throwing money at the poor is a fantastic idea. It's not, when it's at the expensive of everything else. Even poor people need a good road system.

Don't get me started on the mobility car issue, we all know there are a huge number of people who abuse the system. The CAB activly encourage the people they help to 'massage' the truth to get the top rates of PIP/ADP.

I see so, it has nothing to do with non SNP run councils refusing to use the money allocated to them by the Scottish Government, specifically for the maintenance and upkeep of the roads, so that they can let them deteriorate and then point the finger of blame at the SNP when it is actually their fault. This is of course, aided and abetted by a willing and compliant right wing press who are only too happy lie for them and to feed into the SNP-bad feeding frenzy.

And of course if Scotland didn't send most of it's revenue take down to Westminster so that they could build new airports, railways and sewers for the people of London on the dubious pretext that these are national infrastruture projects then perhaps we would have more money to fix our roads instead of fixing the transport infrastucture of the capital of another country.

It would also have been helpful if the current Tory government had not mired itself in endless corruption which saw £billions diverted from the public purse into the hands of a relatvely few party supporters, members and donors. All that money could have gone a long way to fixing the roads (but see below). And whatever you say say Brexit has had a huge impact as it has increased public sector costs meaning there is less money to go around. This happy but entirely forseeable consequence plays well for the Tories who can now deny Scotland access to its own funds safe in the knowledge that some hapless souls will blame the SNP for what is a actually a quite deliberate policy initiative to pass the (blame) buck and thus undermine the Scottish parliament.

All of this is especially sad when one considers what the Tories have been doing these last 13 years. Fortunately, some people have been keeping a tally - see the video below:-

[Goodfellers]

I see so, it has nothing to do with non SNP run councils refusing to use the money allocated to them by the Scottish Government, specifically for the maintenance and upkeep of the roads, so that they can let them deteriorate and then point the finger of blame at the SNP when it is actually their fault. This is of course, aided and abetted by a willing and compliant right wing press who are only too happy lie for them and to feed into the SNP-bad feeding frenzy.

And of course if Scotland didn't send most of it's revenue take down to Westminster so that they could build new airports, railways and sewers for the people of London on the dubious pretext that these are national infrastruture projects then perhaps we would have more money to fix our roads instead of fixing the transport infrastucture of the capital of another country.

It would also have been helpful if the current Tory government had not mired itself in endless corruption which saw £billions diverted from the public purse into the hands of a relatvely few party supporters, members and donors. All that money could have gone a long way to fixing the roads (but see below). And whatever you say say Brexit has had a huge impact as it has increased public sector costs meaning there is less money to go around. This happy but entirely forseeable consequence plays well for the Tories who can now deny Scotland access to its own funds safe in the knowledge that some hapless souls will blame the SNP for what is a actually a quite deliberate policy initiative to pass the (blame) buck and thus undermine the Scottish parliament.

All of this is especially sad when one considers what the Tories have been doing these last 13 years. Fortunately, some people have been keeping a tally - see the video below:-

YAWNS... Change the record Corky, no 'yes' supporter has ever been able to prove more money is sent south than comes back despite repeated requests. As for corruption and mis management, I see you failed to mention any waste and corruption from our amazing SNP government. Even people within the SNP are now realising they need to prove to the electorate that they are up to the job as they know they've been failing so far. Post a link showing how all the SNP led councils have far superior roads to non snp run councils please.

Have a read and cool down. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202000015934/ https://fullfact.org/online/hs2-scotland/

I really thought you understood how it worked, ie, Scotland getting back equivelant cash to spend where it sees fit. Maybe if you understood that, you'd stop posting baseless claims and would calm down a bit.

[Corky Smeek]

YAWNS... Change the record Goodfellers.

I wonder if you really know about the organisations you cite to back up your claims. You invite us to read a report from fullfact.org. Just in case you didn't realise it might not be the organisation you think it is. Here are some interesting quotes about it:-

"The team who frequently appear on Radio 4 and TalkRADIO are looking for a new editor who will be paid a starting salary between £50,000 and £65,000. This is far more than most journalists make so it’s not unreasonable to ask how this self-appointed truth-teller receives its funding.".

"The funding by big-tech in 2019 makes up roughly 70% of their declared funding for the year.".

"It’s also hard not to see the danger in a group whose only USP is that they are never wrong being promoted so heavily by Google. It’s especially worrying when Full Fact seem to include errors on their own website.".

"The organisation claims to have a board of trustees with “members from the three main UK-wide political parties”.". All of which are UNIONIST parties.

"... the majority of the staff who are former reporters appear to have worked for either the BBC or the left-wing press.". Jings, did you really mean to quote a left wing source?

"... broadcasters should be wary of treating the nation’s self-appointed “independent fact checker” as an entirely unbiased source.". Says it all, really.


You will understand therefore, that I don't think your citation has even the slightest hint of credibility about it. Given your right-wing credentials I am surprised to see you invoking yet another "suspect" source to support your views.

As to the other link all it says is that the SG has "not contributed any funds to the HS2 rail link". Who said it had? HMG takes Scotland's revenue and uses it for what it claims are "UK infrastructure projects" even though none are in Scotland. The money is taken out of the coffers long before Scotland gets to see any of it. Curiously though, major Scottish infrastructure projects never get classified as UK-wide so have to be paid entirely from the SG's budget. Strange that!

[Goodfellers]

This thread is now straying far from 'Caithness roads' into politics. One last question for you Corky. IF Scotlands sends all it's money south and gets very little back, why oh why didn't the FM point that out in the white papers released late last year in her quest for independence. Please write to Holyrood and tell them as they don't seem to know that.

I know you wont be able to resist replying, but this is my final musing on this thread as it is getting too political for the 'General' section.

[Corky Smeek]

Ah, the classic unionist bailout. No arguments so invent an excuse to leave the room.

But the really galling thing is that YOU made this a political thread. Look at your first 2 contributions. In any case roads are a political matter. You know it and I know it.

So, it's OK for you to post blatantly political contributions but if anyone else does it you cry foul and run for the hills.

This, demanding of others, which you appear unwilling to comply with yourself is becoming quite prevalent in your posts. You light the blue touch paper then scarper screaming, "a big boy did it and ran away.".

You cannot come on a public forum making inflammatory comments, as you did above, and imagine that no-one is going to take issue with you. But you know that already. Your posts were calculated attempts to make political points but now that you don't like the responses you hastily retreat.

[The Horseman]

My Post on Caithness Roads and Mr. Fernie’s reply.

Mine is as I saw it on regular visits……..my opinion is, there is ‘waste’.

Mr Fernie was on Council and involved with Health Care I think, and knows the system much better than me!

My thoughts were, where is the money for the upkeep of Roads etc. And the etcetera is Much.
There never seems to be a Problem when someone comes asking for a loan/grant for ‘a startup’’, but then they come back to ‘The Trough’ for more to keep the project going! Perhaps the Groat and other media are inaccurate.

I remember some years ago attempting to ascertain where the Grants go, and it was like a ‘Needle in a Haystack’, finding the information.

There was much waste, But the ‘focus now’ should be on what is happening with ‘The People’s Money’ on the Projects going forward.

Mr Fernie pointed out that really no one is to blame! Yes it may be another part of Govt/Council’…but it all comes out if the People’s pockets.
When you have multiple layers of Gov’t, you also have multiple layers of Management, thus costing Double/Triple the amount.

‘The past is behind us, the future is ahead’, and it is now that The People should be questioning where the money goes.

Google ‘Tony Benn’ HOPELESS AND PESSIMISTIC’…..They are easier to Govern!

[Bill Fernie]

You make sweeping statements and generalisations - eg - my opinion is, there is ‘waste’. and - When you have multiple layers of Gov’t, you also have multiple layers of Management. You do not provide any evidence.

To see where money in Highland council goes it is easy if you have the time.

You could start with the annual budget - for example on Thursday this week the council will debate and probably agree most of what is in the published paper for 23/24. See it at https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4754/highland_council

Then you can follow up and track expenditure in great detail over the coming year at all the various committee meetings - all in public view.

If we look at the roads part as outlined in this coming budget paper you will see -
Appendix 4 of the budget proposals shows the stark reality.
Budget: 23/24 Revenue £1,266,110 & 23/24 Capital: £277,500
2019 Highland Backlog figure: £194,827,000 (To remove all defects from the carriageway).

This situation of backlog of repairs etc is at the heart of the problem and has been getting worse for probably 20 years. Council budget have been squeezed as insufficient block grant comes from central government. Less than 20% come from council tax.

In the last few years most areas of the budget have seen reductions. A large part of the budget is restricted as in education and this restricts he ability of the council to move large amount to roads.

Not only Highland council has the backlog problem and Audit Scotland has in the past looked at the problem and concluded that there are possibly in excess of £7 Billion required across Scotland - that was a few years ago so the figure is probably well in excess of £10billion now.

The moves in the budget are ok in themselves but nowhere near to fixing a problem that has built over decades.

Despite the above we keep adding to the problems - dualling the A9, a third Forth Bridge and other roads dualled with it seems not much thought to upkeep.

Let's hope the economy improves so that more can be devoted to essential areas of spending.

For those with the stamina the budget paper for 23/24 can be read at https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings...ghland_council

It will be debated via web cast on Thursday 2 March at 10.35am at https://highland.public-i.tv/core/po...ractive/720496

[The Horseman]

The latest Groat says it all!
Drop The Vanity Projects…Fix the roads!
Methinks my idea. Food For Thought!

A question…Who pays for the name signs that are at the Towns and Villages?
Who pays for the Speed and slow down signs?…..Anyone?

[Tom Bowler]

A message to Bremner and his chums " Just get the F***king roads fixed you useless Tw*ts before someone gets killed !

[The Horseman]

Well you have to understand the ‘Politics of Politics’!
Lives change for some of them, and they want to be remembered for ‘Some Edifice’, or some new idea.

Once the issue of something new like Road Repairs is brought up by many people, hopefully they will clamour around and do something.

And the cost of Dualling the A9, I am told ‘for safety purposes…..is it? If there are so many accidents on the road, get the Police to enforce the speed limits. You can make the World’s best Highways, but you cannot take the blame for idiots!
Ahhhh, it’s a great debate.