You see, I travel that route several times every year and there are one or two sections of that benighted highway that already give me the heebie-jeebies, even in the apparently misguided belief they are safe.

I suppose the worse example is the horrible hill that leads down to the car park at the Grey Mare's Tail. I'm not normally too windy about such matters, reserving my principle dreads for crossing the Forth Road Bridge, when a little bloke inside me refuses to permit any attempt other than under massive sedation and maybe sewn into a stout bag, both of which can cause difficulties when driving.

Setting aside the obvious knowledge that the A708 road is important to anyone who hopes to travel to Dumfries or beyond, it is a major tourist route, having even once been awarded the dubious honour of being the best driving road (or one of them) in the country. The reason for this distinction escapes me at the moment, but I suppose several thousand motorcyclists can't be wrong, or can they? But that is another matter.

A few weeks ago, the Potty Party laid on a public meeting to discuss the merits or otherwise of a new railway in the Borders. I did not go – the outcome of the meeting was pretty obvious well before it happened, so what was the point? But full marks to those who organised that event as it copped some decent publicity, though unintentionally delivering a fine illustration of the main reason why the railway is vital to our future prosperity.

However, I digress a little. What I think we should do now is to get somebody with a bit of time on his or her hands to form an A708 action group to campaign for this neglected highway to be sorted out once and for all.

I expect bean counters in the two councils responsible for the roads will tell us there is insufficient traffic to make this a priority, but maybe these guys find it convenient to ignore a few facts.