Each year, HC establish a roads budget for each region to cover the cost of maintenance, pothole repair (Not a joke, promise!) resurfacing and also clearing of snow and gritting over the winter. The budget must be spread across the year and as such with winter being quite the unknown quantity there tends to be an underspend from the start of the tax year through the winter. Then in late winter, early spring there is a mad budget spend before the end of the tax year. Naturally if budgets are not spent then they are cut in subsequent years…
See this link showing the budget for 2018/2019 in Caithness, some £700k+
The below document shows the extent of works that were scheduled and planned to be repaired/patched/resurfaced in Caithness. No tar was laid on any Caithness road in 2018/2019.
If your road was on this list and has subsequently been repaired or resurfaced, then please get in touch and let us know when it was done so we can cross reference it against the budget and works’ schedules.
This service plan lays out what the HC says they will do, are obligated to do, or plan to do in the winter time and roads maintenance.
Basically for more than a decade the HC employees have been stealing materials, equipment and labour budgets from the taxpayer to complete private roads and driveways, more than 250 at last count and then they have pocketed the cash. Subsequently the HC have investigated this massive, widespread colossal fraud and found nothing. AKA they covered it up to save face. Essentially the senior people at the HC from the CEOs to convenors to finance department to head of roads to planning are all in it up to their necks.
The taxpayer ultimately pays more than twice for what works are completed. Basically if the works are forecast and don’t get done. When they are subsequently done in the future the cost of doing those works has increased. You the taxpayer are being repeatedly frauded to the tune of double digits of millions of pounds and when works are completed they are often done to a lower standard to save money. There are purposely no clerk of works employed to verify what work has been done for this reason. They mark their own homework and don’t find anything wrong. Shocker!
If a road is due for resurfacing and it is budgeted for; the scale of works completed is often to a shorter stretch, a shallower depth and a narrower width. Basically meaning that they do what you’d think was the same job, but without getting into the technical side of road laying you’d not know unless you had a whistleblower explaining it all to you… Luckily we have 5 at present and they all paint a really dark murky picture of all senior staff within HC.
Do you have any roads frauds to report? Get in touch with us and join the team fighting back against HC corruption.
