A SPEYSIDE COMMUNITY Council has raised a petition that urges more action on what is being described as a dangerous situation caused by tree clearing.
The Dufftown Community Council have raised the petition after failing to have crash barriers fitted to the steep banks and bends on the Dufftown to Drummuir road at Parkmore.
Local councillors have also raised their concerns over the situation, saying that where trees offered a barrier for vehicles leaving the road in the past, now they have a dangerous situation where there is nothing to stop those that come off the road from careering down a steep bank.
When the community council wrote to Moray Council, however, the local authority said that in their view no barriers were required and additional road warning signs would suffice, a letter from the local authority saying: “We were approached by the local ward councillors in June regarding this issue as a result of the removal of the trees.
“At that time we carried out an assessment of the risk on the road and concluded that whilst a safety barrier was not appropriate there were measures that could be taken to mitigate the impact of removing the trees.
“As a result we installed additional signs and verge markers as well as adjusting existing signage to highlight the bend.
“Whilst this will not alleviate the concerns of everyone in the community, I hope you can be confident that this matter has been considered and appropriate action has been taken to mitigate the impact of removing the trees.”
Now the community council have taken the petition route, seeking 1000 signatures in the hope of convincing the local authority that barriers are required on the route “in the interests of public safety”.
Comments already made on the petition includes one from Church of Scotland minister Shuna Dicks, who said: “I travel this road regularly – it seems crazy that there is no barrier. You could go off the road here and it could take days for you to be found.”
Another comment from local resident Chris Stuart said: “It’s an absolute no brainer – as soon as the trees came down a barrier should have immediately gone up. Are they waiting for someone to go over it before they decide?”