Driven to Distraction
Motorists back lone councillor in opposing £23m plan for dualling town route
A multi-million pound upgrade of a key East Kilbride route has been criticised by motorists and branded a waste of money.
Councillors agreed to the £23million dualling of a stretch of the Greenhills Road/A726 Strathaven Road corridor.
The scheme is part of the City Deal, which was launched by the UK Government in 2012.
It established a £1.13billion infrastructure fund which aims to support 20 projects to improve the transport network across Glasgow and the Clyde Valley.
All councillors on South Lanarkshire Council’s planning committee agreed to the deal last month with the exception of independent Jim Wardhaugh.
He reckons the money would be better spent elsewhere and that the section of road being dualled was not the real bugbear for drivers.
He also raised congestion issues with the roads surrounding the Birniehill roundabout.
News readers have taken to our Facebook page agreeing with Councillor Wardhaugh’s views.
Alan Shuff posted: “What advantages are to be gained with this? There are traffic hotspots in EK – this isn’t one of them.
“Would be better doing something with that back road bridge, or Birniehill as stated.
“The only difference will be the introduction of delays during the works with next to no benefit after dualling.”
Alan Franklin said: “What a waste of money. These roads are never congested and will make no improvements to public transport.
“In fact, it will make it worse by having no right turn into High Whitehills Road from Greenhills Road, forcing all traffic to go down to the roundabout turn and come back up again at an unused prepared industrial estate. There are busier areas that could be looked at such as entrance/exit from Lindsayfield or new schools.
“Ruining green areas for road widening [is] very short sighted.”
Meanwhile, Carol O’Connor wrote: “It’s ridiculous to use central funding as an excuse for not tackling real issues.
“Drive all over East Kilbride and [there is] worse congestion as schools go in and out. Town is always gridlocked.The Strathaven Road is fine. Start blaming the drivers who use it as a race track and have no regard for others.”
Steven Naylor, 27, said:
“The noise pollution will not be good for residents and is sure to upset people.This happened where I’m from in Newcastle and the disruption lasted years causing even more traffic problems than before.” Winnie Healy, 82, said: “This can only be a good thing. Drivers will be able to dodge the traffic which there is so much of nowadays.You have to move with the times.”
Fiona Keenan posted: “Who can honestly say that amount of money for a short length of road that is never congested can be justified?
“I have never ever been held up on that stretch of road in all my years of driving.
“The Birniehill roundabout, however, is a dreadful bottleneck at 8.30am.”
But the SNP group, who run the council administration, have defended the decision.
A spokesman said: “The planning committee is a quasi-judicial body, meaning councillors take decisions based on the evidence they have
NancyTaylor, 82, said: “Building a dual carriageway is a good idea.You always have to leave early whenever you’re going anywhere because the traffic is so bad, even after rush hour.” James McGibbon, 59, said:
“The knock-on effect is that money is taken away from local businesses as people pass through and don’t stop to spend at the local shops.”
in front of them. Every councillor, with the exception of Councillor Wardhaugh, agreed that the proposal should proceed.”
The Labour group have also backed the dualling which also aims to boost business by unlocking key development and regeneration sites and improve public transport.
The road will be dualled from the existing dual carriageway on Strathaven Road to the roundabout with Greenhills Road and then extending along to the existing roundabout which forms the access into Langlands West.