Anger at PKC response at road woes meeting

Mar 8 2011 by Alison Lowson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

PERTH residents concerned about the Murray Royal Hospital development have been left “frustrated” after crunch talks with council officials.

Members of Bridgend, Gannochy and Kinnoull Community Council met with Perth and Kinross Council’s (PKC) road service manager Charles Haggart and transport planning officer Tony Maric to discuss their concerns over road and traffic conditions caused by the construction of the new state-of-the-art mental health facility.

In particular, community councillors were unhappy with the answers they received from authority chiefs when they were asked about traffic congestion, damage to roads and a lack of car-parking spaces available to members of staff and patients when the ward opens in 2012.

Residents informed the committee they felt 225 car-parking spaces for 300 to 400 people per day was bound to cause problems, in addition to “long delays, the bottlenecks and dangerous narrow roads”.

Community councillors were also left disappointed when told the clearing of mud deposited on the road by lorries travelling in and out of the site was not the responsibility of PKC.

Claiming they had been told the parking on “clogged-up” Muirhall Hall was “not severe” and they had been told to “wait and see”, a community council spokeswoman explained they had not been reassured by the meeting or had their questions answered.

“There was considerable frustration at the meeting,” she said. “The community council and local residents want action to be taken now to deal with existing problems and forestall those which will obviously be caused by the new hospital.

“Why ‘wait and see’ and let difficulties arise? Serious issues have to be looked at now and action taken so that we aren’t meeting disaster. We should think ahead of the game.”

A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “The council doesn't have a ‘wait and see’ approach to this site. Plans to deal with issues raised above were included in the planning consent. The council will take action if the contractor is found to be in breach of conditions included in that consent.

“If residents are concerned that breaches might be taking place, they should report their concerns to the council so investigations can be carried out.

“The council has to work with the road network and the traffic flows that we have. The council has introduced measures aimed at cutting the number of vehicles on the roads, such as park and ride schemes, but in the short-term it is very difficult to significantly reduce the amount of traffic that uses Perth's roads.

“A traffic management plan for the development was agreed with the developer as part of the planning consent. This includes targets for parking and public transport use.

“The council is also constantly looking at ways to improve the current transport and traffic situation in and around Perth.

“The council maintains and repairs all roads that it is responsible for.

“It is the contractor's responsibility to clean mud from the road. It is not possible for the council to have someone check the road for mud each day, but if residents contact our roads department if there is a mud problem we will ask the contractor to clear it.”