THE A7 Action Group has expressed its "serious disappointment'' that trunk road agency BEAR Scotland failed to turn up to another meeting of the group in Selkirk on Friday, writes Mark Entwistle.
Local MP Michael Moore, who chairs the group, has written to the company, which has responsibility for the trunk road section of the A7 south of Galashiels, to highlight concerns about the upkeep of the route and to remind them of their promise to at
tend the group’s meetings to hear first hand about local community concerns.
The action group consists of local MPs, MSPs, councillors, community councillors and other interested people who represent or live on the route from Heriot to Langholm.
Mr Moore says members of the action group are very frustrated that BEAR has now missed the last two meetings in Stow and Selkirk.
“South of Hawick there have been lights at Branxholm for over a year now which is completely unacceptable,” Mr Moore told The Wee Paper this week.
“People want to know when the work will be done. There is a long list of issues, from street lighting to road surface quality, that members want to put directly to the company – the meetings are only once every three or four months so we don’t think it is unreasonable to expect someone to attend for up to an hour and a half.
“I hope that following my letter on behalf of the group we will see some action and a new attitude.”
Selkirk councillor Kenneth Gunn slammed BEAR as being “100 times worse” than its Amey predecessor.
“It is not just frustrating for the action group, but for the community council also. Three times now Bear has made an excuse for not attending action group meetings – somebody’s off, somebody’s sick or somebody’s at a funeral – and it is very frustrating,” said Councillor Gunn. “Bear are just not pro-active. Amey were bad, but this lot are 100 times worse. They’ve done a wee bit of patching work outside the Red Cross shop, but that’s been ongoing for 15 or 16 months.
“They’ve been doing some work at the pedestrian crossing, but that’s something else that’s been taking forever – actually from when Bear took over from Amey in March, 2007.
“I am afraid Bear is just not up to the job.”
On Friday’s agenda there was also an update from Scottish Borders Council about plans for a Selkirk by pass, and a briefing about the delays on the Galashiels Inner Relief Road.
The next meeting of the group will be in Hawick on September 12.
The full article contains 450 words and appears in Selkirk Weekend Advertiser newspaper.
