The City Engineer, has recently confirmed the programme for the upgrading of unadopted footways (pavements) for the current financial year.
The £0.5million annual programme of work includes the following list of pavements in Broughty Ferry that have been prioritised for financial year 2015/16.
Work will commence on a phased basis starting in summer 2015.
- Abertay Street - east footway only south of Hamilton Street
- Stewart Street
- Reres Road - south footway only Monifieth Road to Reres Park
I am sure residents who live and walk along these streets will be pleased that, at long last, their footways are being upgraded and thereafter adopted by the city council.
During September, two stretches of pavement in Barnhill have been upgraded and adopted. Campfield Road and Abertay Street (west side) have been dug up and resurfaced to a standard that the Council are willing to adopt.
I am sure that residents will be relieved that after years of waiting their turn, their footways will soon be fit for the 21st century.
Residents who live on the stretch of Albany Road between Ralston Road and Fairfield Road are fed up with their muddy pavements. On both sides of the street the pavements are unadopted. Slowly this road is rising up the list of priorities for bringing up to standard and then adoption by the City Council. But that can't be fast enough for residents who walk along this street.
My picture above shows, a stretch of footway on the south side of the road close to a construction site for a new build house with a portacabin site office on the road and a muddy section of pavement in between.
On the same stretch of the road, but on the north side, the second photo shows the tyre tracks of a heavy vehicle which has churned up the surface of the footway. Also in shot is the overhanging foliage from a resident's garden that is obstructing the footway.
I have written to the Transportation Department to request that they inspect the footway and re-prioritise it on the list of unadopted pavements.
The poor state of the pavements in central Broughty Ferry is often a source of complaint to me by constituents and local businesses.
On the basis of these accumulated complaints and my observations, I think the worst sections of pavement are more likely to be concrete rather than tarmac. Many sections of these pavements are cracked and the top surface is flaking off leaving an uneven profile. In both these instances, the fractures and the dips in the surface make these sections of pavement prone to further damage from water ingress and frost action.
My photograph features a section of pavement outside Hosie's Electrical Store at 322-4 Brook Street. This pavement is clearly uneven, damaged and unsatisfactory. Unfortunately this is not dissimilar to many other sections of concrete pavement in the centre of The Ferry.
While pavement surfaces like this are undoubtedly unsightly, it is also potentially dangerous, especially for those already prone to falls. Tripping over on such a surface can easily lead to fractures which are costly to the individual casualty and the NHS.
I have written to the Director of Transportation requesting a credible response. In my view, in the long term it is not very effective for the Council to merely do small scale and superficial patch and mend. While this kind of repair may remove an immediate danger by filling in the worst of the potholes, the Council needs a comprehensive resurfacing programme in central Broughty Ferry. The current occasional patch and mend is in the long term a waste of our council tax payers' money.
A constituent in Camphill Road has complained to me about the very poor state of a section of pavement in her home area. It is in fact stretching a point to refer to this pathway as a pavement. The pathway in question is at the beginning of Abertay Street on the western side of the road between Campfield Square shops and Camphill Road.
My constituent finds that the potholes and unevenness in the surface on this short stretch of pathway makes it impossible for her grand daughter to push her wee dolls pram round to the shops. Furthermore, the sharp exposed chunks of gravel are very hard on the feet of adults and children. They are also very punishing on the knees and hands of those, young and old, who are unsteady on their feet and fall over onto the gravel.
The picture shows both some of the holes in the path as well as the coarse and sharp exposed gravel on the surface of the path. This coarse and angular gravel is probably more exposed now that some of the finer particles has been dispersed by the wind and rain over the years.
I have written to the City Development Department to request an urgent resurfacing of this short section of pathway. It would be good if the Council could make this rough section of path into a bona fide pavement.
