Home   News   National   Article

Highland councillor hits out at road repair methods


By SPP Reporter



A Highland councillor has ht out at the way potholes are repaired
A Highland councillor has ht out at the way potholes are repaired

A councillor has claimed using cold tar to fill in potholes on the Highlands’s crumbling road network is "ridiculous" and should only be used in emergencies.

Fiona Robertson has hit out at the local authority’s continued use of cold tar to combat potholes and believes it is a waste of time.

The Independent councillor said she is inundated every day with calls from residents reporting potholes in her ward who are up in arms about the cold tar method.

Councillor Robertson claimed the repairs are dislodged "within days", cause a mess to motorists’ vehicles and the pothole needs to be promptly fixed again.

She is now calling for the council - which defended the use of cold tar patching because the work can be carried out at short notice and in winter – to stop using the method and concentrate on the more expensive but better effective hot tar repairs.

"The cold tar method of filing potholes is ridiculous and a complete waste of council resources," said Councillor Robertson.

"Within days the cold tar has been dislodged, usually making a huge mess of peoples’ cars, and the pothole is just as bad. The roads men then come out and repeat the process.

"The cost of repeatedly doing this is huge and we all find it unbelievable that this pattern continues."

Councillor Robertson (Tain and Easter Ross) said it was a problem discussed by colleagues across the region but did not know how much the authority was spending on cold tar repairs.

She intends to raise the matter with the council’s transport, environmental and community services committee in August.

A local authority spokeswoman said it did not keep specific figures on cold tar repairs. But it spent a total of £3.2 million on fixing potholes and repairing roads with a mixture of hot and cold tar in the last year, which was the biggest investment in five years.

The council said it tried to deal with potholes in the most effective way possible and repairs often depended on the weather.

"Cold tar patching is used as a temporary repair to make a pothole safe and the material is kept in stock so that it is always available and work can be arranged at short notice," the spokeswoman said. "The last three winters have been particularly challenging in terms of potholes, and we have had to use temporary repairs due to the prevailing weather conditions."

Hot tar repairs are carried out in the spring and summer, while the council is spending an extra £1.5 million this year on surface dressing roads to reduce the chances of them breaking up and potholes appearing.

Senior Independents Isobel McCallum and Billy Barclay have tabled a motion at a council meeting in Inverness tomorrow (28.6) calling on the SNP-led coalition to pump millions of pounds more into roads investment.

Meanwhile, the council is also now using a new machine called a Jet Patcher which sends a blast of tar into the pothole and cuts the amount of shovelling workers normally need to do.

"This method has proved to be very successful on our rural roads and can achieve high levels of productivity," added the spokeswoman.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.


This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More