ACCIDENTS continue to plague the A708 Moffat to Selkirk road with four incidents reported in June.
The issues relating to the Selkirk road have been a hot topic at meetings of Moffat and District Community Council (MDCC) since February.
Concerns were first raised by inhabitants, who stated that they had witnessed countless near misses by timber lorries travelling along the route.
At Tuesday’s meeting of MDCC, community police officer John Cowan updated residents on the timber route, saying: “The police have received four reports of incidents on the A708 Moffat to Selkirk road since the last meeting. On the 2nd of June a motorbike collided with a car and the biker sustained a fractured wrist and the car driver was charged with careless driving.
“On the 8th of June there was a two car road traffic collision with wing mirrors damaged on both vehicles, the police did not attend that incident.
“On the 17th of June a vehicle left the roadway into the soft verge whilst meeting on-coming traffic close to the Grey Mare’s Tail.
“And on the 23rd of June there was a two vehicle no-injury road traffic collision where a motor bike collided with the back of a car, again the police did not attend that incident.”
Later in the meeting there was a lengthy discussion about the A708 and the danger it poses to residents and drivers.
MDCC secretary Mick Barker gave assurances that the community council will continue to press the issue with Dumfries and Galloway Council, he said: “After lots of pressure the council management have said that they plan to enter into some form of dialogue as far as the roads department is concerned but only via Teams. They have been offering to do that for a considerable amount of time but there is absolutely no sign of any date arising.
“The A708 is an example of a number of roads that are a danger.
I don’t know what it’s going to take in terms of accident or disaster to get them [the council] to actually move to do something about it but the principal of safety management means that you move before disaster not after.”
