The Annan v Moffat document was created by disability activist Alex Thorburn to compare the two Annandale towns in terms of maintenance and accessibility.
And he hopes it will bring Moffat’s maintenance levels up to par with nearby Annan. – says report Complete with dozens of pictures, the 36-page-long report brands Moffat ‘drab and uninteresting’, while hailing Annan’s ‘extensive repairs’.
Criticising Moffat’s accessibility, the report reads: “From an access point of view, the town is dangerous. “There are numerous potholes and rough surfaces, dropped kerbs in particular are extremely poor and in some cases non-existent.
“Moffat urgently requires at least one controlled crossing but two controlled crossings would be beneficial to residents, visitors and particularly for business owners.”
It adds: “It is very clear to me that Moffat has been very neglected for many years and has suffered both economically and socially due to that neglect.”
Calling Annan more ‘alive’ than Moffat, Mr Thorburn added: “The recent improvements in and around the town of Annan have no doubt contributed to positive impression.
“As the economic lifeblood of Moffat is tourism-based,I fail to understand why Moffat has been so neglected as compared with other towns in the region.”
The report was distributed to councillors and council officials this week in the hope it would encourage the local authority to invest more in the upper Annandale community.
However, the council were quick to highlight that Annan is in fact one of Scotland’s most deprived towns.
A council spokeswoman said: “This was stated in the Scottish Governments Indices of multiple deprivation, which places Annan in the higher quartile of Scotland’s most deprived areas.
“It is part of the Gretna, Lockerbie, Annan (GLA) and M74 corridors, which areastrategic economic development and investment priority for our council and have been since 2009.
“The improvements made in Gretna, Lockerbie and Annan areadirect result of a co-ordinated partnership with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to address economic decline in the wake of the Chapelcross nuclear power station decommissioning.”
And highlighing that the work was not commissioned by the council, she added: “The report Annan v Moffat has not been produced by the council, nor has the council input into its content.
“It has, therefore, no official status and is not informed by the Council’s Regional Economic Strategy, M74 Strategy or Chapelcross Development Framework.
“Instead the report focuses on detailed aspects of the high street which would otherwise be prioritised by the council’s maintenance budgets.”
