Milton view Valued village heritage
Dear Editor, What a week it’s been in Bothwell, with parades, marching bands and a host of activities taking placewith the seventh annual scarecrow festival.
It was fantastic to see hundreds of people line the streets on Sunday to watch the parade and a host of people representing the community. It was testimony to the many who worked endless hours on costumes, musical rehearsals and all the other tasks that went to make both the parade and the planning of all the events such a success.
Today the clear up has begun and my eyes were drawn to the sign at a green space as you enter the village stating: ‘Welcome to Historic Bothwell Beautiful Scotland Gold Medal Winner.’ It’s impossible to argue with that as the volunteers and council workers do a fantastic job of showcasing the village and making it beautiful. However, the village is under threat from enterprises like the planned demolition of beautiful historic buildings like Fairleigh House.
Cala Homes are also building 12 five bedroom homes and 12 executive apartments at a point in Old Bothwell Road which has already become over-congested due to the new traffic system at the point where you cross Bothell Bridge. The Advertiser covered this story last week and there has already been an accident due to this ill-conceived abolition of the roundabout.
Old Bothwell Road residents are increasingly seeing the street being used as a rat-run. The road dates back centuries. It was initially for horse and cart and coaches.
The work on these new homes is scheduled to begin next week. At the same time our planning committee are weighing up the application from the Balmers to build a 61bed care home across this narrow road from the Cala development. Heavy plant will be required to dig out the foundations. Then there will be the concrete lorries and the transportation of personnel as well as materials and if the care home gets planning permission.
We will not only have lost yet another historic building but the traffic implications for servicing the needs of the care home will be enormous. It will be staffed 24/7 as well as all the visitors and services required.
Apart from the demolition of yet another fine and important historic house,the traffic generated will make living on our road a nightmare. The building of the Cala Homes is’ fait acommpli’ but the care home should be rejected. It will cause congestion and have an adverse impact on the lives of the residents living in this area.
We’ve shown we take pride in our village but the village needs you to protect it. Please send your views on this to our three councillors. They are as follows: Maureen Devlin (Labour), Kenny Mccreary (Conservative) and Jim Mcguigan (SNP).
John Rae, Old Bothwell Road Bothwell Dear Editor, It was clear to all that the new lights system at the entrance to Bothwell was going to cause a problem.
However, we are assured that this problem will be resolved. South Lanarkshire assured motorists that once Peacock Cross’s system of traffic management was finely tuned we would see an improvement in traffic flow. I for one am still waiting. Because of the uninterrupted flow of traffic on Bothwell Road, Almada Street has become a nightmare.
It seems that the phasing of the lights at Peacock Cross has been altered giving the Almada Street traffic an increased phase.
Hard luck on the traffic approaching Peacock Cross from Union Street and Wellhall Road.
It only takes two or three buses stopped at the bus stop in the road between Peacock Cross and Clydesdale Street for Peacock Cross to become gridlocked.
What is essential that this short length of road be returned to one way as it was before the disastrous reconfiguration of Peacock Cross and surrounding roads was implemented.
The left hand lane must be a ‘bus only’ lane with any other vehicle penalised for entering it.
John L Rimmer (sen) Park Road, Hamilton