Woman, 75, fed up with potholes fills them in herself

A 75-year-old woman fed-up with potholes outside her home decided to fix them herself using garden tools.

Jenny Paterson spent three-and-a-half hours using a rake, spade and bucket to fill in holes on a rutted section of Bridge Street in Halkirk, Caithness.

Mrs Paterson said it was a temporary measure until the road could be sorted properly and hoped it "shamed" the council into action.

She had been brushing broken-up road surface off the pavement at her house when she sized up the potholes and said to herself: "Och, just go for it".

Campaigners in Caithness have been highlighting the state of the county's roads for months.

A Highland Council plan to invest millions into roads and infrastructure across its region was approved by councillors in May.

The local authority has been approached for comment on the state of Halkirk's roads.

Mrs Paterson was joined by her neighbour, Jen MacDonald, in clearing pieces of grit and gravel and carrying the material in a bucket to fill holes.

"It’s not fixed, it’s temporary, but maybe it will shame the council into doing something," said Mrs Paterson.

She said the section of road had been in a poor state for at least four years.

"It has completely eroded away, great big deep potholes which are always full of water, and I’d just had enough," she said.

"It looks fairly level now, but it’s not going to stay there – it’s just going to get washed away again."

Her son Rory Paterson, 51, said: "Halkirk is like everywhere else with potholes.

"My mum is very house proud and the front of her house is all lovely with plants but they never clean out the gutter, they never sweep the roads here.

"She just got fed up. I told her it probably won’t make any difference and she said 'I don’t care'."

Mr Paterson said his mother had recently been treated in hospital and was told to avoid doing any heavy lifting.

He said: "You can’t tell my mum to slow down.

"When I caught her, she was leaning on the broom like a proper council worker."