Four years on and Fife route is no better says Crail resident

Community councils for Crail and Boarhills and Dunino have discussed the issue, and this week the local Crail newsletter carried a letter from a local resident about the A917.

Ken Henderson claimed the trouble with the road goes back to August 2012, when flooding washed the surface away.

Since then, he said, the road has continued to deteriorate.

“I used to travel the road every day,” Mr Henderson said, “and still travel it regularly and since 2012 the damage has just spread.

“It’s now accelerating rapidly, particularly between Kingsbarns and Brownhills.”

He had believed the road would have been repaired in time for last year’s Open, particularly when ‘temporary road surface’ signs appeared just before the event.

But Mr Henderson’s hopes were dashed when the signs were removed after the event.

“Every time I travel to St Andrew I wonder just how desperate the road conditions must become before it is decided that action is required,” he added.

Fellow Crail resident Eric Morris described the road as dreadful.

“I cannot understand why it has not been fixed,” he said, “from the Fairmont Hotel to Brownhills in particular is shocking.

“The whole surface is lifting – anyone driving the road will experience the problem.”

Graham Anderson is the chairman of Crail Community Council, and he reported that the issue had been raised at community council meetings. And he expected it to be raised at Monday’s (November 28) meeting again.

“It is an issue that is being mentioned more often,” he acknowledged, “but when we raised it recently with our local councillor, Donald MacGregor, it was clear that lack of money meant repairs would not be happening.”

Cllr MacGregor was able to list a series of works to be undertaken on the A917 in the months ahead – but none of them were to do with resurfacing the road.

He said the issue had been raised with him by neighbouring Boarhills and Dunino Community Council, but he was clear that there was no money available to resurface the road.

However, Fife Council does not acknowledge there is a problem.

Kevin Smith, lead professional with the council, said; “The A917 is inspected on a monthly basis and there are no safety concerns at the moment.

“There are no plans to resurface the road next year but it is under constant review and any serious deterioration will be dealt with immediately.”