February 21, 2013
Scotland

£195,000 bill to fix damaged roads

By David Ewen | Evening Express | 21 February 2013 |

Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash is to be used to repair roads damaged by lorries laden with wind turbines.

The North-east’s regional transport partnership has been forced to blow £195,000 in its 2013/14 budget.

The cash will be used for resurfacing and reinstating crumbling verges on a country road pummelled by the monstrous transporters.

Today, North-east MSP Richard Baker said he planned to raise the matter with the Transport Minister.

Mr Baker, pictured, added: “Developers are making a lot of cash out of windfarms and the taxpayer shouldn’t have to shell out. These repairs should be paid for by the people who are making a profit.

“These are big sums of money that could be spent benefiting the quality of the transport network.”

Nestrans’ newly approved budget – which comes from Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire councils and Transport Scotland – has allocated the cash for the work on the A920 Colpy to Potts Rayne road, north of Inverurie.

It is used as a route for lorries carrying turbines to sites north because they can’t negotiate a tight bend beneath a rail bridge on the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road.

Several large windfarms have been set up in Aberdeenshire in recent years.

Councillor Peter Argyle, chairman of both Nestrans and the council’s infrastructure services committee, said: “It is very rare for a council or a roads authority to seek ‘compensation’ for damage caused to an ‘A’ class road.

“From a personal point of view it would not seem unreasonable for wind turbine developers or other operators of very heavy vehicles on our road network to ‘make good’ damage caused to the public road network.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/02/21/195000-bill-to-fix-damaged-roads/