Champagne popped to mark end of pothole plague in Fordoun

By Kieran Beattie

May 11 2022, 5:00 pm

Fordoun resident Alex Wasinowicz celebrated the potholes being fixed with a bottle of bubbly. Photograph by Wullie Marr, 11/05/22

Champagne has been popped to celebrate the end of a pothole plague in an Aberdeenshire village.

After the Press and Journal highlighted the severely poor state of the roads in the small Mearns community of Fordoun last month, Aberdeenshire Council dispatched workers to get the problem sorted.

Alex Wasinowicz, a resident of Fordoun, initially reached out to the P&J about the road defects after growing concerned about the danger to not just motorists, but children riding on their bikes around the village.

Fordoun resident Alex Wasinowicz, right, and his neighbour Bill Taylor at a repaired section of road in the village, toasting the completion of repair works with champagne.

But now he says he’s “over the moon” the problems have been addressed and repairs have been carried out, and brought out the bubbly to celebrate.

Shire council ‘should give themselves a pat on the back’

This week we returned to one of the formerly worst places in Fordoun for potholes, at the bottom of the road that leads into the community from the dual carriageway and crosses the railway.

When last we visited, it was riddled with defects and vehicles were swerving onto the wrong side of the road to avoid them.

The road surface has now been properly treated, and repainted with a stop sign.

Alex said: “I’m totally elated, my neighbours and me are all over the moon.

“As a former employee of Aberdeenshire Council as a teacher I’ve always had trust in them as a good local authority which cares for the welfare of the public.

“They came out about 10 days after the write-up in the Press and Journal and Evening Express, and they did a really professional job.

“Aberdeenshire Council should give themselves a pat on the back for being such an excellent local authority, well done!”

Another example of the council’s work in Fordoun. Photograph by Wullie Marr, 10/05/22.

Council says ‘bear with us’ to Aberdeenshire communities awaiting pothole repairs

Of course, for every success story like Fordoun, there are communities across the north-east still patiently waiting for their potholed roads to be fixed.

Not every Aberdeenshire resident has a reason to celebrate like Alex and Bill here… Photograph by Wullie Marr, 10/05/22.

Aberdeenshire Council says that their teams and external contractors “continue to make good progress on our road surfacing and repairs programme across the region”.

But a spokesman said some areas will need to wait longer than others.

He said: “Such repairs do take time to programme and we appreciate that working on roads can cause some inconvenience to users.

“However, we urge motorists to bear with us and to continue providing us with information about all defects affecting the road network so we can carefully categorise depending on the severity of the defect and programme accordingly for repair.”

Here’s where you can report road defects in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.