Bridge consultation

RESIDENTS in the West End of Dundee have labelled the city council’s consultation process on the proposed new footbridge at Magdalen Green “shockingly poor,” claiming the process has excluded large sections of the community.

They say many residents in the area are either unaware of the consultation or have not been included in the process and reported their concerns to local politicians and to the West End Community Council.

Many local people feel the proposed footbridge is too big and appears more like a “flyover”, but have not been included in the consultation process to air those views.

The design of the bridge shows it to be more than three times the length of the existing one, and is both taller and wider than the current construction.

In addition, only one design has been provided by Stantec, despite the council insisting in July,

2022 that the consultation process would ensure residents would have input into the design.

West End councillor

Fraser

MacPherson and Dundee-based MSP Michael Marra said they shared residents’ concerns and had both raised the issues with senior members of the city council, while Gary Langlands, chairman of West End Community Council, said his members had expressed concerns over what they termed the “flawed” process.

Dundee City Council previously announced plans to replace the existing 70-yearold footbridge over the railway at Magdalen Green and – using finance provided by Sustrans, custodians of the National Cycle Network in Scotland – contracted engineering services company Stantec to oversee the project, including the consultation process.

The two-part process is now complete; however, many in the West End feel thousands of residents were excluded by the manner in which the consultation was conducted. Mr Langlands said the community council had a lot of negative comments from members who said the consultation did not provide a true and proper representation of the local community, adding: “People feel the consultation did not allow for older people who feel excluded from it.

“Passions are high among residents, there was a workshop in the library and only 13 people were present, which included a cycling group from outwith our area and only four of us from the West End.

“Most people would call it a flyover rather than a bridge, the impact of it is going to be significant for people who use the park and there was a discussion around the consultation. Our members felt they had not been included in the consultation.

“West End Community Council has been in touch with council leader John Alexander about it.”

Their feelings were echoed by West End councillor Fraser MacPherson, who described the process as “shockingly poor”.

“My feelings are that the consultation has been carried out poorly and I think I speak for myself and my ward colleague Michael Crichton on saying that,” he said.

“While we fully accept that there will be people with different views on the replacement footbridge, the important thing is that all members of the community feel that they’ve been able to engage and have their views taken into account.

“What I find astonishing, and I’ve raised this with Gregg Colgan, the chief executive of the council, is that in the current consultation, there has been no public forum whatsoever for them to participate face to face with Stantec, who are the company the council employed, using Sustrans money, but nonetheless at considerable expense to the public purse.

“What they’ve done is they’ve had workshops with some pre-picked community groups, which had very small attendances because the number of people invited was very small.

“But there has been nothing face to face with the general public, which is shockingly poor.

“Ultimately, it will be subject to a planning application and they have to go through the consultation at that stage, but surely you try to get the thing right at the early stages, and I just feel it’s been an example of ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ rather than starting with a blank sheet of paper and working with the community on what they want the bridge to look like.

“There’s also been an attempt in my view to limit the engagement with the public in the West End.

“If you are not online, and plenty of people – particularly the elderly – aren’t, and you’re not a member of one of the chosen community groups, there is no way of engaging with this consultation, because the whole thing has been done online and via the Stantec-created website.”

MSP Michael Marra said he raised similar concerns with senior councillors and urged them to re-engage with the community over the design.

A council spokesman said: “Working with Sustrans, and in line with their funding criteria, a consultancy company were employed to carry out a variety of public consultation engagements.

“The consultation period has now ended and all views have been recorded and will be considered.”

An impression of how the new West End footbridge could look.