IF YOU are a regular reader of my postie’s posts you will probably sigh when you realise that I am talking about roads again this month. But I do have an excuse and that is because the Highland Council aren’t really that good at managing them at times.
We don’t have many roads up here; there is normally only one route to and from anywhere, there are no rat runs available to be able to avoid trouble if necessary and to top the lot, most of the roads up here are only single track, so technically there is only half the amount of road to manage!
After living in built-up areas for most of my life, and being within minutes of reaching major road networks at my previous address in Huddersfield, I have seen the busiest eight lane motorways, the quietest rural country lanes and the biggest potholes you could imagine. Once you leave Inverness, the Highland roads are comparably in the best condition I have ever encountered: very few potholes, no sunken roadside drains, and rarely any utility companies digging up the roads willy-nilly — sometimes, as I have witnessed, digging them up just after another company has just filled them in.
So, the Highland Council should either be great at managing roadworks when they get them because they can focus on one project at a time, or not great because they aren’t experienced enough.
Regular readers will have read last month’s article on the debacle of managing the closure of the B871 Syre to Kinbrace road to facilitate the demolition and rebuilding of the bridge over Lonigill Burn. The road closure notice was only in The Northern Times three days before the six-week road closure started.
This story is from the No 314, December 2017 edition of Am Bratach.
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This story is from the No 314, December 2017 edition of Am Bratach.
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Bookends
“She Said He Said I Said: New Writing Scotland 35”, edited by Diana Hendry and Susie Maguire, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2017. £9.95.
Graeme At Large
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A 19th Century View Of 'Wild' Land
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Fraser Darling's View Of Highland Medical Care
The “West Highland Survey: an essay in human ecology”, edited by Frank Fraser Darling, was published by the Oxford University Press in 1955. Fraser Darling (1903-79) was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author who between 1939 and 1943 brought derelict land into agricultural production on Tanera Mòr in the Summer Isles. In January 1944 he met Tom Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, who was aware of Fraser Darling’s published works which included a popular weekly column on agricultural science syndicated in several Highland newspapers. They agreed his plan for a social and biological investigation into the problems of the West Highlands and for establishing an agricultural advisory and demonstration centre in the crofting areas. In Fraser Darling’s own words, the West Highland Survey was established “in order to examine in a spirit of scientific inquiry, to gather a solid body of facts for analysis and synthesis, which would serve as a foundation for a future policy for the region”. He continued: “The argument was maintained that if the problem were understood in its wholeness, solution would be possible”. In June 1944, a team which included Frank Fraser Darling as director and four young Gaelic-speaking field officers, began work. The resulting 438-page book includes the following account of the Highlands and Islands Medical Service, launched in 1913 and forerunner of the Scottish National Health Service. After thirty years, the surveyors regarded the service as an unqualified success, an enviable situation underlined by the number of able medics seeking work in the post-war Highlands.
From Our Archives
Long service nurse to be honoured by community
The Postie's Post
IF YOU are a regular reader of my postie’s posts you will probably sigh when you realise that I am talking about roads again this month. But I do have an excuse and that is because the Highland Council aren’t really that good at managing them at times.
Bookends
George Gunn, “The Great Edge”, Grace Note Publications, 2017. £12.99.
The Postie's Post
WHEN YOU consider that we really don’t have that many roads in the Highlands, the ones we do have seem to get a story from most people you talk to.
