DRIVING on the roads of Skye, an island widely known for outdoor adventure, is at present giving a whole new meaning to the term potholing. The condition of the island’s roads has gradually deteriorated to the point where you can now look in your rear-view mirror and watch as the car behind veers onto the opposite side of the road. Not to overtake, but to take evasive action to avoid the crater-riddled mess which has now become Skye’s road system. A frightening thing to see.
Cars wend their way down a straight stretch of road like dogs running through weave poles on an assault course. If a car went for an MOT in the same condition as the trunk and side roads of Skye currently find themselves in, it would be an instant fail. Why should roads be any different?
Skye is certainly not the only place afflicted. Far from it. Many Highland roads are similarly blighted, but as one of the most popular Scottish destinations after Edinburgh, you can only wonder what the encroaching tourist season will bring.
Having been told that plans have been made by those responsible for the roads is little consolation as the situation continues to worsen with each passing day. Manpower and resources must surely be limited when you consider the scope of the work that is needed to bring the roads up to the standard required. Not just for the influx of visitors, but also for the thousands of residents who use these roads to achieve the basics of day to day life.
I am lucky. I work from home and the journey I made from Glendale to Portree and back again via Sligachan this week is one which I don’t need to make often. Not that this made it any less horrendous. However, if you are someone, such as a delivery driver or postie, whose job necessitates constant travel on these roads, or someone who makes the journey twice daily to reach work or school, it must truly be turning life into a waking nightmare. It makes setting foot outside your front door and travelling a short distance a hazard.
I have seen for myself the depth of the holes in the road and, just over the course of last weekend, heard of several people whose tyres have become the latest victims of pothole hell. Sometimes the cavernous potholes are strewn across both sides of the road, ensuring there is no other way than to risk rubber to gouged tarmac. From time to time you see a sign which denotes “loose chippings”. This is an understatement. Although the loose chippings washed from the road are creating havoc in themselves, with windscreens falling like flies.
On the road between Sligachan and Dunvegan you do see valiant attempts to restore order, with stretches of road which have been resurfaced, but this is interspersed with many areas which are still under the control of nature’s wrath. The sheer level of work required remains a huge challenge and, arriving safely home, you are left feeling that Skye’s roads have reached crisis point and, as we wait for a resolution, wondering where islanders go from here. Hopefully not into a pothole.
Sadie Brown
Isle of Skye
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with Bryan Clark regarding the roadside litter (Letters, February 20). I would also go further and say that it isn’t just roadside, it’s everywhere. Everywhere I look I see rubbish just dumped out of cars, lorries etc. I frequently walk a cycleway that runs through our village and litter is just dumped: water bottles, soft drinks plastic bottles, drinks cans.
It’s deplorable the disregard that people now have for the environment. I don’t know what the answer is. The Scottish Government’s idea of having recycle stations for plastics and cans is admirable, with a refundable deposit as other countries have, but I just don’t think it will work. Unfortunately, If people are just too lazy to take it to a bin, do you think it will be any better taking it to a machine to reclaim a deposit? I don’t think so.
Allan Hendry
Alloa
IN response to Bryan Clark’s letter, this problem is all too familiar in Paisley, where I live. Although people should take responsibility for their own actions, our local councils have been ignoring this problem for far too long. All political parties should remember that future generations may judge them very harshly indeed if they are the ones who are left to clean up a horrible legacy left to them by their predecessors.
Stuart Manson
Paisley
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