A MULTIPLE sclerosis sufferer has been hailed a local hero in his Highland village for his constant efforts to ensure drivers can travel down a pothole-strewn road.

Ronald Stewart, 71, who needs to use a Motability scooter, travels the short distance from home to the 200-yard approach road in the Inverness-shire village of Invergarry most days to smooth over the surface. Armed with a bucket and spade, with tar dumped nearby, Mr Stewart’s efforts allow motorists to drive down the road without damaging their vehicles – and have helped the community hall’s cafe which is next to it do a “roaring trade”.

He is a modern-day version of Raasay’s Calum Macleod. The former lighthouse worker famously built “Calum’s Road” with his brother Charles to ensure there was a route to Rona Lighthouse after planners had refused to allow one. It still stands today.

Mr Stewart, a former Hydro Board driver who has had MS for 30 years, compared his work to the re-painting of the Forth Bridge. He said: “No sooner have you finished, than you start again. The community has helped me cope with my ill health for years and this is my chance to give something back. It keeps me going and it is a great social activity for me meeting different people.

“There was a load of tar dumped by the roadside and no-one seems to want it. So I fill up my bucket and fill in the potholes as I go along, come rain or come shine.”