Round the bend at Dirtpot
David O'Leary • Published 3 Feb 2012 09:30
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NEWS that work on the notorious Dirtpot Corner will not begin until at least 2015 has been met with fury by a local councillor.
The decision was announced by Scottish Borders Council as they laid out their capital expenditure plans on Tuesday.
It had been hoped that funding would be put in place for a £4.7m realignment scheme at the site to start within the next couple of years.
However, the work on the A72 near Innerleithen has instead been delayed until sometime between 2015 and 2018 which led councillor Willie Archibald to accuse the Tory-LibDem administration of only 'pretending to be concerned' ahead of upcoming local elections.
Tuesday's meeting did bear some good news for capital projects in Tweeddale though with the confirmation of £3.9m being set aside for new sports facilities at Peebles High School.
At present sutudents at the 1200 roll school must travel to the Gytes for PE lessons - an arrangement slammed by HMIe inspectors during their most recent visit.
The present games hall has been out of action since September 2010 due to problems with a leaking roof.
Meanwhile, concern over Dirtpot has existed since 2003, when the A72 was closed for six weeks following a landslide which left Innerleithen residents largely cut off to the west with no suitable alternative route.
The accident blackspot was then dropped from a scheme of improvement projects following budget cuts last February, instead £300,000 was earmarked to strengthen temporary works to stabilise banking above the road.
In December, Tweeddale East councillor Gavin Logan was successful in agreeing new speed signage at the site, after motorcyclist David Arnott was killed in a collision at the corner in August.
This week's announcement was greeted with dismay by Tweeddale SNP members at a meeting on Tuesday evening.
Local councillor Willie Archibald said: "Only when an election is looming do the Tory-LibDem councillors who run Scottish Borders Council make this announcement that schedules urgent work on Dirtpot five years in the future.
"For years the Tories and LibDems have resisted this project. Now, just before an election, they are pretending to be concerned by scheduling so far in the future that it will be after the next-but-one election, if ever.
"Recent works are simply more tinkering with a longstanding problem of ground instability. What is required now is a fundamental road redesign with carriageway realignment away from the unstable and continually shifting hillside."
This was echoed by prospective Tweeddale East candidate Stuart Bell, who added: "It is just a fig leaf for Scottish Borders Council to put up speed warning signs.
"These are necessary road safety improvements; but the signs are also intended to cover the embarrassment of the Tory-LibDem executive who run SBC.
"This small ruling group have consistently exploited their position to avoid listening to the opposition SNP's repeated demands to implement a permanent solution at Dirtpot corner."
However Tory councillor Gavin Logan disputes this entirely, slamming both his fellow councillor and election rival in the process.
He said: "The fact that the SNP have resorted to these kind of remarks only goes to show that they have nothing positive to talk about in the run up to the Council elections.
"We all know that there has to be priorities so would the SNP rather the administration did not spend money on the new facilities at Peebles High School, after all they did their level best to stop the new primary school.
"They also mention a fig leaf, well it would not need a fig leaf to cover their contribution to this council. They have never produced an alternative Budget, and they refuse to represent their constituents by sitting on committees, content only to cherry pick.
"On no occasion have they been able to carry out their job of opposition; scrutinising, holding to account and making contributions. These functions were left to the backbench members of the Administration. It's clear to all that discredited SNP councillors have offered nothing in this Council and it looks like they are offering more of the same for the next."
SBC Executive Member for Finance and local councillor, Neil Calvert, was equally dismissive of the views from councillor Archibald and his compatriot.
He said: "As a council we have a number of capital planning requirements and some are classed as being of higher priority than others such as Peebles High School games hall.
"This will be a fantastic resource not just for the students but the community also. We don't have a blank cheque to pay for all of these projects in one job lot, maybe if the Scottish Government gave us more funding then we could accelerate them all."
This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 03 Feb 12
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