A NEW community group dedicated to ‘keeping the Greensands green’ is calling on residents to object to plans for a new car park on the site.
The Dumfries Against New Greensands Car Park group was founded by Dr Katie Percival and is opposed to the creation of a 50-bay car park on the Greensands, as the rest of the Whitesands flood defence system risks being abandoned due to spiralling costs.
Katie said: “I’m not opposed to Dumfries having a flood defence scheme – we need to protect our homes and businesses from the devastating effects of flooding.
“I am opposed to paving over one of the few green spaces we have in the centre of Dumfries to compensate for parking that we might not even lose if the Whitesands flood defence project doesn’t go ahead. Replacing soil and greenery with tarmac and concrete will only worsen our river bank’s ability to absorb flood water.”
Members of the group took to the streets to survey users of the Greensands park last Thursday and found that majority of those surveyed opposed the new car park on the grounds of road safety for children as much of the footfall was from schoolchildren walking or cycling to Loreburn Primary School and Dumfries Academy.
Loreburn community councillor Simon Jones added: “The new car park won’t solve the issue that traders on the Whitesands have regarding potential loss of their customers arriving from the car park opposite, nor does it provide true town centre car parking as it’s no more convenient than other town centre-adjacent car parks like Brooms Road which are never full.
“It will be built to tick a bureaucratic box so that it will later be possible to build stage two and onwards of the Whitesands Project, which are currently under review anyway.”
