£3.6m of road repairs agreed for towns across north-east Fife
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Members of the north east Fife area committee have rubber-stamped a range of priority projects to be carried out over the 2022/23 financial year, with spending promised on carriageways, footways, lighting, road safety and traffic management schemes, and structural investigations.
There was concern, however, over indications that the capital budget for such projects across Fife will reduce from £8.25m this year to around £5m annually from 2023/24 - although Neil Watson, lead consultant for roads and lighting asset management, said the fact that the capital plan is reviewed every two to three years should provide opportunities to consider extra investment going forward.
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Hide AdJust over £3m is to be spent on carriageways alone across north east Fife and a bulk of that will be in Boarhills, where nearly £930,000 has been earmarked for the A917 from Balmashie to Pitmilly.
Around £300,000 will be spent on the A91 Roundabout to Innerbridge Street in Guardbridge, and around £250,000 has been allocated to the A917 rural road from Drumeldrie to the access road at Dumbarnie Links.
Also approved are combined footway and lighting schemes at Newtown in Cupar, where residents have been calling for additional street lighting work for around a decade.
The length of time it has taken has not been lost on Cupar councillor Karen Marjoram, who hopes that the fact the Newtown work now appears to be near the top of the priority list on paper will finally mean it will be carried out.
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Hide Ad“I’ve been trying to get this sorted for nearly 10 full years and I’m fed up with the list of reasons as to why it never gets done,” she said.
“It makes a mockery of having a plan and councillors coming to the team with issues that have been raised by residents.”
Other projects include cash for structural works, such as £200,000 to stabilise the retaining wall at Cupar’s Lyne Burn Cottage in Riggs Place, £80,000 on rock fall prevention measures at Dura Den, and £20,000 on replacing damaged railings on Kinnessburn Road, St Andrews.