Princes Street disgrace: 'The weather cannot be held solely to blame'

FACED with a backlog of essential road repairs already estimated to cost £86 million, the last thing the city needed was a harsh winter – unfortunately it got it.

As a result the council will spend 1m in the first quarter of this year mending potholes and cracks caused by snow and ice – five times more than it had budgeted for.

Whether it chooses to focus it attention on repairing the worst defects first, on main arterial routes or in residential side streets is a matter for planners.

But based on photographic evidence obtained today by the Evening News Princes Street must be among their immediate priorities.

Despite access to traffic being limited to buses and taxis, and it being closed completely during the recent tram works, the carriageways look like a patchwork of metal and tar.

The weather cannot be held solely to blame. It is clear that during the rush to complete the laying of tracks to have the street opened in time for the festive period contractors did little more than a rough patch-up job. Effectively, sticking plasters were used to cover gaping wounds – and the hasty repairs have not stood a short test of time.

Despite its attractiveness being blighted by the ongoing tram works, Princes Street remains the city's most famous and best visited thoroughfare. For both locals and visitors to see it in such a shocking state of disrepair is unacceptable. What message does it send out regarding our civic pride?

Would the Champs Elysees, Las Ramblas or Oxford Street be allowed to deteriorate to such a level?

There was a great deal of scepticism when the city's pothole repair teams won a national efficiency award late last year.

The current state of our roads gives them the ideal opportunity to prove it was merited, by rolling up their sleeves and dealing with the ever increasing backlog of urgent repairs – as 74 per cent of News readers called for in a recent poll.

Against the odds

THERE'S an old – and frustratingly true – saying among gamblers: you can't beat the bookies.

What that means is that they are good at what they do, and they make sure the odds are stacked in their favour. But punter Darren Scales was shocked to find that on one occasion it also meant his local William Hill wouldn't pay out when he'd won.

The bookie saw the error of its ways when the News stepped in, leaving Darren 2,500 richer. So for once, the punter did beat the bookies.