Digging Up The Streets — we are world class at it! (As long as it's for quantity rather than for speed.)

I can't remember when Ardross Terrace, for instance, didn't have several holes in the ground with little discernible activity going on around them.

On the other hand Ardross Terrace is possibly just silver medal material compared with Culduthel Road which is not only a 24 carat Olympic certainty but surely also destined for world records galore.

How often over the last five to 10 years has this principal artery into the city centre, with frequent offshoots into adjoining Drummond Road, been plagued long term with holes, trenches, traffic lights, tarring machines, diggers, etc? The latest Culduthel Road disaster has been the utter chaos resulting from the traffic lights and associated trench between Hedgefield and the Drummond Road junction.

How long does it take to dig a hole, for goodness sake?!

This is not an old fashioned mental arithmetic question and the answer possibly depends on how much or how little the Utility Company concerned is prepared to invest in the work. If these obstructions are, in fact, absolute necessities, then perhaps the companies responsible should be obliged to plough some of their massive profits into ensuring that, in order to minimise the mayhem, work continues 24-7 and not just for a few hours a day.

My apologies if I have omitted to mention equally disruptive and potentially medal winning interventions elsewhere in the city.

Charles Bannerman, 15 Holm Dell Place, Inverness

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