A row over the siting of an electric vehicle charging point in a Braehead street is rumbling on after the local community council denied claims it had been contacted over the move.
The electric charging point - including four car parking spaces - has been located in Almond Court, with Stirling Council insisting it had received a number of requests from locals.
However, residents on the street have contacted the Observer to question the location of the charging point, as well as the level of consultation carried out with those living there.
In response to those criticisms, a Stirling Council spokesperson said it had “consulted with the local community council in accordance with our statutory duties”, as well as placing a Traffic Order in local media.
But in the latest twist, the community council involved - Braehead and Broomridge Community Council - have denied receiving the communication from the council and claimed residents should have been more involved in the process.
Secretary Gary McGrow said: “As secretary of the community council, I can confirm that no such consultation took place.
“According to Stirling Council, they sent an email to us which we never received.
“Even if we had received the email we do not consider this appropriate consultation.
“We believe Stirling Council should have engaged local residents directly and failing to do so was an abdication of responsibility on their part.”
Chairman Hugh McClung added: “The officer [from the council] said she had completed her obligatory duty to communicate with the community council on November 4 last year, but we have checked our records right back to October and there’s nothing.
“If we had seen that, we would have launched an objection; we would expect them to contact residents in the area, but the council says the community council has the obligation to do that - that is not our role.
“We’ve spoken to residents in the area and none of them have told they asked for this and none of them even own an electric or hybrid vehicle, so we don’t know where the demand has come for this project. I went along to the site visit with Councillors Gerry McLaughlan and Bryan Flannagan and when you look at that, it’s a four-vehicle space which is three metres from a lady’s house so if there is a fire in one of those vehicles then that creates a risk for her house.
“This issue would have been on our agenda to be discussed had we known about it but that was never the case.
“Some of the councillors have told us that they would try and get a delay on this, but the money has already been committed so that might be difficult.”
Stirling Council were unable to provide a response before going to press.
