FIX OUR ROADS OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES

Published 1 Jul 2009 16:46 0 Comments

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A PENSIONER has warned the council to fix the area"s roads before they cause a tragedy.

Barrhead man Andrew Barnes, of Seaforth Crescent, claims his street, Stobs Drive and Lomond Drive are dangerous and has filmed the roads to show the state they are in.

Andrew recently presented the News with his nine minutes of footage and it appears the three streets are in a terrible condition with pot holes appearing every few yards.

After damaging a rear coil spring in his Vauhall Corsa due to a pot hole on Lomond Drive a couple of weeks ago Andrew decided to take action.

The 73-year-old is now campaigning to get the roads sorted and has already popped in to see council chiefs and show them his video of the dodgy roads.

The concerned granddad told the News; 'The roads in the Cross Stobs area are in a dangerous condition and are unsafe for drivers, cyclists, children and people in general.

'The council can"t just leave these roads damaged and wait for a bad accident before doing something about them.

'When I spoke to the roads department before they talked a whole load of guff so I got my video camera to show what a state the roads are in.

'These streets have been needing repaired for years.

'My plan is to send this video to Joe Devine and then I will be handing in a claim for £87 to the council for the damage pot holes did to my car.'

Andrew has accused East Renfrewshire Council of being irresponsible by not fixing the roads.

He added: 'They will not maintain or repair anything unless it is reported but they need to fix these things before there is a tragedy.

'The council seem to think it"s cheaper to pay for people"s car repairs rather than repair the roads.'

A council spokesman said: 'We regularly inspect all of our roads and note defects.

'Mr Barnes does not need to send us a DVD to bring the condition of the roads here to our attention.

'The problem we have, in line with every other council in Scotland, is that we don"t have enough money to repair road defects.

'The roads in East Renfrewshire carry far higher volumes of traffic than they were designed for.

'If Mr Barnes submits a claim it will be considered under our normal procedures but there is no truth in the claim that we would rather pay out compensation than repair the roads.'

This article appeared in Barrhead News 01 Jul 09

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