Anger over road funding refusal
Residents let down says Cllr
An SNP councillor has accused local authority leaders of condemning longsuffering Perth residents to further years of hardship after they refused to consider funding a new road.
Perth City North councillor Dave Doogan hit out at the Conservativeled administration after it failed to revise its capital budget last week so that a new access road could be built behind the city’s Pullar Terrace.
The council’s SNP group put forward a proposal to spend £300,000 creating the access locals want in an alternative budget it came up with to counter the administration’s proposals but not a single one of its suggestions were accepted.
Councillor Doogan specifically highlighted the plight of Pullar Terrace residents at last week’s budget meeting telling his colleagues people were fed up of bin lorries, ambulances and undertakers not being able to get near their homes just as the PA previously reported earlier this year.
He told the meeting:
Councillor Dave Doogan put forward a proposal for an access road
“Pullar Terrace exhibits a lack of accessibility which proves extremely difficult for emergency vehicles, extremely problematic for our own refuse collection vehicles and operatives and, I’m afraid, the dignified removal of people who have passed away at home is all but impossible.
“That’s why we are allocating funding to resolve this matter with a modest access road which we have discussed with officers ... and which I hope the council will agree today.”
But despite drawing attention to the problems people experience living in the street not a single Conservative councillor offered to adapt their budget to pay for the project.
A disappointed Mr Doogan told the PA after the meeting: “What I sought to achieve was to get an understanding from the Tory administration that this council has a responsibility to do something about the situation at Pullar Terrace, but the administration refused to allocate the funding.
“Whilst this comes as a great disappointment to myself ... it will be most keenly felt by the residents who have been let down by this Tory administration.”
Moving the administration’s budget last week council leader Murray Lyle said the local authority would be investing over £110 million on roads and over £83m in bridges including the Cross Tay Link Road over the next ten years.
“This budget also includes over £7.5m towards improving our open spaces and almost £5.5m towards the road measures that our communities require,” he added.
It will be most keenly felt by residents