PICTURES: Wick driving instructors speak out over 'horrendous' potholed roads
Driving instructors have joined forces to voice their frustration over the "horrendous" state of many roads in and around Wick.
They claim it is unfair on learner drivers who are having to negotiate their way around increasing numbers of deep potholes.
One instructor, with well over 30 years' experience, said she had never seen local roads in such a bad condition.
Another warned that a serious accident could happen and insisted: "It can't carry on the way it is."
Gary Sinclair, who runs Gary’s Driving School, said: “The one question I want answered by Highland Council is why is Caithness so bad?
“Examiners are saying this is the worst place that they cover.”
Mr Sinclair warned of the potential dangers if drivers decide to swerve to miss potholes.
Debbie Aitkenhead, of DA Driving School, said: “I have a friend in Inverness and she says as soon as you come over the Ord it's like, 'What's happened? It's just like an eruption.'
“It seems the farther away you are from Inverness, the less interest they've got.
“There used to be a few holes and you knew where to avoid, but now it's whole road surfaces that are coming up.
“If you're coming from the Wick test centre back down, it's horrendous.”
"It's not fair on new starts who are trying to keep control of the car. It's totally a different way of learning now – you're looking for potholes the whole time."
Marion Mackay is a retired driving instructor but still helps out from time to time.
She said: "I've been a driving instructor for 34 years and it has never, ever been as bad as this. Nowhere else comes close."
Adam Hendry, of Adam's Driving School, pointed to a lack of surface dressing as a key factor.
“It's just not happening," Mr Hendry said. "It's a maintenance thing, but it does protect the roadway.
"It's actually quite a cheap thing to do. It's not as expensive as leaving the road for five years and having to redo it.
"It will have been a cost-saving thing back in the day but unfortunately it's having a detrimental effect on the roads.”
Eighteen-year-old Fearne McCarthy, from Mey, one of Mr Sinclair's pupils, told how potholes have become an increasing hazard for learner drivers.
“It's distracting," she said. "I've had to try and learn how to drive a car in general, yet I have to then keep an eye on the road to see if I'm going to hit this hole, and how many inches deep it is, and if I'm going to end up veering off and damaging the car.
“Up near the test centre, that road is quite bad. That's where Gary first took me, because it's a quieter area, but it's not very handy when there are so many holes everywhere.
“I'm nearly ready for a test but it doesn't make it easier. Also, cars are having to go through MOTs and things to make sure that they're safe for the road – but is the road even safe for the car?”
David Bremner, of Caithness Motorcycle Training, said: “The wear and tear on bikes is unreal.
"I can miss some of the potholes that the driving schools can't. I can get between two potholes, whereas cars have to hit the same potholes every day over and over again.
“It's quite common for me to get folk from all over Scotland. This last year I've had pupils from Shetland to Campbeltown, and folk were saying, 'Thank you very much for putting me through my test, but I hope I never have to ride on the streets of Wick again.'
"Some are saying, 'If I lived here I wouldn't ride a bike.' It's as simple as that.”
The instructors have been gathering photos of some of Wick's worst-affected areas.
They acknowledge that repairs have been carried out recently, such as near Tesco and in Hill Avenue, but can list numerous problem areas where the road surfaces are continuing to crumble.
“They're doing it temporarily, just to get it done, but we're really needing new roads all over,” Mrs Aitkenhead said.
"It can't carry on the way it is. I know we've got a few bits patched up, and that's good, but you've got a lot of stones on the road just now that are hitting the cars.
"You've got learners that have just passed their test and they've got to go out and drive on those roads.
"I do think there's going to be a really bad accident before something comes to light that this has got to change.
"We all talk about and we keep saying the same things. Everybody is complaining about it – we shouldn't be accepting that we have got to endure this.
"It is a crisis. I do love my job, but I'm at the point where I think this is ridiculous – doing this job, in these conditions. I am getting quite annoyed by it."
Lara Smith of Caithness Driving Solutions said: “A pupil asked me recently to practise driving at speed on rural roads. I asked them what it was in particular that they lacked confidence about, and their reply was 'potholes'.
“This really shouldn't be their main worry when driving.
“Another pupil knew of four people in the space of a week that had burst their tyres, all people under a year after passing their test. Safety should be paramount but sadly, in our case in Caithness, it is not.”
All the instructors are supportive of the campaigning work being done by Caithness Roads Recovery.
At last month's meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council, chairperson Joanna Coghill spoke out over the "appalling" state of some local streets and challenged local MSP Maree Todd and MP Jamie Stone to come and see the worst spots for themselves.
A Highland Council spokesperson said: “The capital element of the roads investment budget for 2022/23 was approved at the meeting of Highland Council on December 9, 2021. There are some 6771 kilometres of regional roads network across Highland. The allocation for structural road maintenance is distributed between the operational areas as a percentage, assessed by the outputs from the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey and road length.
“With the additional capital investment made by the council, the total capital budget allocation for Inverness area roads was £2,229,497 and for Caithness it was £1,202,581 for the year 2022/23. These include a ward allocation for councillors to decide where on the adopted road network the funding was to be spent. Caithness has 761.9km of adopted roads, and the Inverness area has 1,027.0km.
“The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 states that a local roads authority shall manage and maintain roads that are on its list of public roads. The Act does not state that roads are to be kept entirely free of defects as it would not be possible to do so. Additionally, local authorities also have fiscal responsibilities and are required to spend within their limited budgets with the resources available.”
