Outrage as tarmac rip up branded a ‘waste of money’
Furious residents have slammed a decision to lift hundreds of pounds worth of pavement – only to replace it just months later.
And locals say the “reckless waste of cash” could not have come at a worse time.
The folk of Girvan were fizzing when roads bosses ordered workmen to lift monoblocking from the area at Stumpy Corner in October.
The work tearing up the land was part of a project to upgrade the traffic signals, footways and carriageway on the A77 and took over a month.
But instead of replacing the “perfectly good” monoblocking, “horrible looking” tarmac was put in its place – causing fury in the town. And now seven months later, in the middle of summer, the TranServ workmen are back after they “realised it was an area of conservation.”
“You couldn’t make it up”, said a source. “The whole place is upside down yet again. There’s lorries at all corners and the traffic lights are back – as are the mile long queues.
“We were all surprised in the first place when they put down the tarmac because it’s a conservation area and it used to look nice with the monoblocking.
“But these fools took it all way. It’s become difficult enough for us to attract tourism to the town in recent years – and many complained about this at the time.
“But now, in the middle of summer, they are back causing havoc. It’s ridiculous, they’ve spent all that money to put the pavement back the way it was in the first place. Can you imagine what this has cost?!”
This month Vincent Tait, Scotland TranServ’s Road Safety Manager, said that following consultation with the local community, work would begin replacing the current surface “with a more specialist paving, more in keeping with the aesthetic of the area”.
Work began on Monday, July 13 and is scheduled to end on Friday, August 14 and Girvan and South Carrick councillor Ian Fitzsimmons agreed the timing of the work couldn’t be much worse.
Mr Fitzsimmons told the Post: “It’s very bad timing for the town, just when the tourist crowds are starting to come back.
“It’s a conservation area so they should have reinstalled the blocked paving when they were at it last year.
“They are now rectifying it but it should have been done later on in the year.
“There was nothing wrong with the monoblocking that was there before, but they had to tear it all up to get the new traffic lights in – and I must say they have made a big difference because the traffic moves a lot more freely now. But now there’s more traffic problems in the town with the temporary traffic lights – and this could have been avoided.”
A Scotland TranServ spokesperson said: “Following initial consultation with key stakeholders, no concerns were raised regarding the replacement of the footway, only after completion of the resurfacing were any issues raised. At personal cost to Scotland TranServ, further to a request from local community members, a new monoblock footway will be installed, similar to its predecessor. The previous monoblock footway was reaching the end of its maintainable life and was therefore subject to drainage issues, and had inconsistent kerb levels which caused potential issues for vulnerable road users.
“It was necessary to lift the original footway in order to install the new traffic signals and they have reduced the number of delays for through traffic and provided new pedestrian facilities.”