SIR, - For the umpteenth time our mean-minded killjoy government has rejected Sir Alan Beith’s (and everyone else’s) call for dualling the A1 throughout Northumberland; Minister Tom Harris (who?) lists four spurious criteria for doing nothing about it.The fifth criterion, of course, is that the territory through which the A1 runs in its semi-rural state includes Berwickshire and nowhere in this area is represented by New Labour.It is unfair that despite almost 35 years service Sir Alan is not rewarded in the same way as 28 years service by another MP/MSP with almost all the A1 in East Lothian being dualled - something to do with red being preferred to yellow maybeis this weeks star letter in the Berwickshire NewsJoy apparently equates with the ability to speed through...
Tar Tar For Now There must be some cash still swilling around in the Scottish Borders Roads' budget for FY 2007/8 as there is a sudden rush of pothole filling going on in these here parts. Quite often the budget for repairs is exhausted by July -or so we used to be told when we wanted a quick repair job done. But now road gangs (not usually chained together) are out and about. To my eye the technique seems Third World-or perhaps not quite as advanced. Take one small lorry. Add a couple of blokes. Issue them with small buckets full of steaming tar. Ask them to fill in all available potholes, crumbled edges and other impurities within, say, fifty yards (having thoughtfully partially blocked the carriageway with an arrangement of barrels and old planks. Traffic lights optional.Once holes...
Berwickshire Red Light DistrictSorry Randy of Reston this is about roads. Specifically the Borders Council's Roads Dept: aka Having the life of Riley. All Autumn and early winter, snug inside the St Boswells HQ, or the Dinger sub office; endless cups of teas, a few hands of cards, wall to wall digital, glued to Al Jazeera and chuckling at all those plaintive appeals from wretched community councils asking them to fix potholes, drain flooding, repair verges. There is no Arabic word for maintenance I was once told by an Oriental scholar and I sometimes wonder if we do not have the same hiatus in Border Council officialese, 'Send them the usual response' yells, Roadsman Billy-'No funds until next financial year' (first used each late July)Then come late January: the first mild day, financial...
