Residents hit out at ‘useless’ road works

About 30 people from Back of the Hill met with senior Dumfries and Galloway Council officer John Howell to voice their shock at three newly created pedestrian ‘refuges’ on Elm Road.
Theresa Woodman claims the work has actually made the road more dangerous, and said: “There were at least 30 residents at the meeting, and nobody’s happy about them.”
Pointing to long-running attempts to improve pedestrian safety, she added: “We petitioned for a path, and the first any of the residents knew about it is when they came to build these islands.”
The moves were agreed at Annandale and Eskdale Area Committee in March 2014.
Theresa said: “When we looked at the minutes it did say that they should consult the locals — and they didn’t do that.”
Hitting out at the ‘refuges’, she says cars are forced to weave around them, the drop kerbs are facing the middle of the road, they are not accessible to prams and wheelchairs, and that pedestrians heading to town are forced to contravene the Highway Code by walking on the left side of the road—with traffic coming from behind.
Directing her daughter to no longer use the road as a route to school, Theresa said: “It’s made the situation worse.”
Annandale South Councillor Richard Brodie helped organise Thursday’s meeting, and said there was ‘universal agreement’ the refuges were ‘absolutely no use’ as they were’.
Noting the majority present voted to scrap the scheme and remove the islands, Councillor Brodie said: “The positive outcome is that council officials have agreed to put further works on hold, so that they can go away and come back with revised options
which will, at last, be consulted upon with the residents.”
However, Dumfries and Galloway Council say plans to create a further short length of footway on the hill section of road were halted due to a ‘land ownership issue’. A topographical survey is now being carried out.
And a spokesman said: “The works have not materially altered from those agreed by area committee. So, any any potential significant changes would most likely need to be considered by the area committee.”