RESIDENTS of Mouswald are enraged at the A75 roadworks that has caused severe traffic disruption in the town.
Re-surfacing work for the A75 was announced a few weeks ago by the contractor company Amey, which saw work and overnight closures.
Whilst they provided the dates and times of the road closures, even announcing overnight closures across the week and a break on Sunday, they did not indicate where these diversions would be taking place.
Due to this, from the point of closure last Friday night and over the whole weekend, a large influx of traffic came through the mid road leading to Mouswald village and caused havoc for the residents.
Mark Smith, chairman of the Mouswald Community Council, said: “A massive amount of Eastbound traffic came through the U103n on Saturday.
“This is a single track road with occasional passing places, but at least three-quarters of a mile doesn’t even have any passing places.
“It was ridiculous – with lorries, a large number of bulky motorhomes, as well as cars all desperately trying to find a quick workaround the closure.
“Westbound was just as bad, with the bulk of traffic heading down through the sleepy village of Mouswald itself. Also single track in places, this is not equipped to deal with an A75 diversion.”
Mark added: “Tempers were frayed and very little consideration to local residents.
“Several local people, including myself, phoned 101 Police Scotland on Friday night and Saturday morning, but they were sadly disappointing in their response, seeking to deflect us to Amey, as the contractors.
“I eventually managed to get them to say that they would send out a traffic officer to assess the situation, but heard nothing back.
“Although the peak issues were over the weekend, continuing nightly closures are still resulting in a heavy amount of traffic and village residents being woken in the early hours by traffic jams outside their front doors and lorries unable to get past each other.
“One local dog walker was screamed at last night by a passing motorist who poured abuse at her for simply walking her dog on a country lane!
“Councillor Richard Brodie had been supportive and apparently managed to get the contractors to place ‘No HGVs’ signs on the road junctions, but many motorists clearly ignored advice and waited till the hard diversions through Mouswald at the closure barriers.
“As local residents, we believe there are some serious lessons to be learned by the Scottish Government from this debacle.
“Mouswald Community Council and our residents are happy to engage with them going forward, to ensure no other village community adjacent to a major trunk road, has to endure what we have in Mouswald.”
Amey were contacted for comment.
