Council apologises for ‘unforgivable oversight’
Chief exec addresses bollards issue at virtual meeting
Parking measures imposed without warning on Bridge of Allan last week were an “unforgiveable oversight” Stirling Council’s chief executive has admitted.
Apologising to businesses and locals in the town, Carol Beattie said she would personally be visiting retailers to hear their views when an easing of lockdown allowed.
The “traffic management measures” were introduced ahead of the re-opening of many small retailers for the first time in months last Monday morning, with the changes aiming to assist with safe queuing, pedestrian access and public safety.
But livid Bridge of Allan business owners slammed a lack of communication over the plans and said the restrictions on parking on Henderson Street served to harm their efforts to trade on the first morning back.
The anger on social media led to a community campaign urging the council to rethink the proposals and a council statement on Monday evening confirmed a backtrack.
Speaking at a virtual meeting of Stirling Council last week, Ms Beattie admitted while the lack of engagement was not reflective of the council’s wider approach, engagement with Bridge of Allan prior to the introduction of the measures had been lacking.
The council’s most senior official added: “I would like to apologise to Bridge of Allan residents and business owners. This was an unforgiveable oversight.
“What I would say more broadly is there had been good engagement with communities over this period of time.”
She added: “There has been good engagement with city centre and Dunblane and other areas which, for reasons we will now investigate a bit more fully, did not happen in Bridge of Allan before the introduction of these measures.
“The bad examples always come forward more than the good ones, but engagement has to be at the heart of what we do.”
Ms Beattie had been responding to a question from Bridge of Allan and Dunblane SNP councillor Graham Houston on the importance of community engagement in general going forward.
He said: “As we saw in Bridge of Allan, our best intentions to improve situations sometimes don’t land well with communities so there’s a lesson learned.”
Green councillor for the ward Alasdair Tollemache said: “It is important to say we have seen a lot of people cycling and walking when there have been fewer vehicles on the road. Isn’t it important we are, however, doing what we can to progress that while keeping the businesses on side?”
Ms Beattie said: “I completely agree. Obviously where we were lacking in this regard was reflecting a variety of different views and reaching a compromise in terms of active travel based on making sure businesses didn’t suffer. Measure were overly punitive to one group over another.
“Once the five mile guidance is revised I am going to speak to the business owners personally to hear their views as well as others to get a different plan that suits more people.”
Once the five mile guidance is revised I am going to speak to the business owners personally