The ghost town
Struggling community will be ‘deserted’ by visitors due to 25-mile detour... just in time for holiday week
A VILLAGE is in danger of becoming a ‘ghost town’ after council bosses announced plans to shut its main access road for a week.
Residents in Aberfoyle, Stirlingshire, are fighting the council over works that will create a 25-mile detour that includes a winding mountain pass.
The A821 is the only access to the village from the south and the main route to the Trossachs and the southern shore of Loch Katrine.
Shop owner Caroline Fleming, 57, who runs tourism website Trossachs.co.uk, said the village relies on passing trade and has lost five hotels in 15 years.
She said that closing the road during the day during the English half-term holiday was ‘madness’.
She added: ‘The village and its businesses will be completely cut off for an entire week. The only alternative is a 25mile diversion down a winding road. As a community of small businesses we are hanging on by a thread and the timing of this during the school holidays means it will be the nail in the coffin for many.
‘We are a tourism area, it’s the English holidays and without that trade our village would be dead.
‘We need this to be stopped before it finishes Aberfoyle.’
Mrs Fleming, who has lived in the village with husband Joe, 63, for 20 years, said the first villagers knew of the closure was when a sign was erected at the side of the road this month.
She added: ‘A more sensible way would have been working on one side of the road and using traffic lights, or working overnight.
‘I cannot believe Stirling Council decided that a good way to do roadworks at the entrance to Aberfoyle is to close access to the village for a week.’
Stirling Council said the road will be closed from Monday between 9am and 3.30pm, with two half-hour windows when it will be open to allow traffic to pass through.
The closure will see traffic diverted through Callander, ten miles to the north and will also affect the village of Kinlochard.
The council discussed the works with the local community council and other interested parties.
But Andrew Malcolm, 55, who owns Liz MacGregor’s coffee shop in Aberfoyle, said residents were not consulted.
He added: ‘I have lived here for 30 years and I have never seen the village cut off like this.
‘This is a tough time for small businesses as it is without this.
‘The English holiday week is crucial for us all and I honestly expect our turnover to halve.
‘Stirling Council don’t see us as important.
‘My wife complained to their roads manager months ago and we were basically told there was nothing we could do, that as far as they were concerned the Scottish holidays were over and the works would be going ahead as planned.
‘We are all for improving the roads and keeping on top of maintenance, but we don’t see why they have to do it in the school holidays.’
Jim Thomson, convener of the council’s environment committee, said: ‘The road is not wide enough for the work to be completed under traffic lights.
‘These sections of road are in poor condition and badly need to be repaired.
‘This scheme has been held back to this time to avoid peak tourism periods and the major disruption to businesses that this would cause.
‘In addition, late October temperatures do not permit resurfacing work overnight.’
‘I honestly expect turnover to halve’