A POTHOLE-RIDDLED junction in Cowdenbeath has finally landed on Fife Council's repair list, but that’s only "half the fight". 

Local SNP councillor Bailey-Lee Robb has helped to get a commitment to fix the craters where Blackburn Drive meets Farm Road but said he'll need to keep on pushing to make sure it's done soon. 

He estimated that "hundreds of pounds of damage" has already been caused to multiple vehicles and that the junction has been identified for a full resurface "if and when funding becomes available".

Cllr Robb said: "I’ll view it as a victory when it’s done because it’s only half the fight getting it on the list, nevermind actually getting it patched over. 

“The junction could be first on the list, but if something more severe comes up in the officer’s opinion, it gets bumped down the list.

"All I can do as a local councillor is continually press for it to be done in an efficient manner, but if it’s not deemed as a priority in their eyes I’m powerless.” 

Sara Wilson, roads lead consultant at Fife Council, said: “We’ve recently completed some emergency repairs on this road ahead of it being resurfaced, which we hope to do later in the summer.”

The process of securing this first victory has been “incredibly difficult” according to Cllr Robb. 

“It’s been a long tedious process,” he said.  

“What you find with transportation is that you are fighting against so many other areas for priority that you are essentially a small fish in a big pond.

"That’s what I’m certainly finding in the Cowdenbeath area. It’s absolutely atrocious.” 

He believes a Fife-wide, consistent approach is needed to address the scale of the road issues.

Cllr Robb said locations in desperate need of patching must get allocated quickly to prevent accidents and injuries. 

“Roads and transportation are such a big issue to people all over Fife, but particularly in Cowdenbeath and more rural areas where people are very reliant on cars rather than public transport,” he said. 

“Where more people rely on cars there are more potholes and obstacles on the roads, but the pace of repairing them and ensuring infrastructure keeps up with demand has been targeted to a few specific areas rather than a coherent approach across Fife. 

“The council tax payers are quite frankly fed up. They want change and they want to see the condition of the roads they pay tax for improve and for a number of years they haven’t.”