A petition for road safety measures in Thorntonhall has been referred by councillors to Police Scotland to survey the problems.
The issue was raised by the lead petitioner Mark Aitken at South Lanarkshire Council’s (SLC) petitions committee meeting today (February 16).
Mr Aitken discussed the concerns of the Thorntonhall community and community council which related to the design of mini-roundabouts at junctions at Peel Road.
Mr Aitken said: “I’m quite an active walker in Thorntonhall , at least twice a day and I see a lot of these issues and I want to do something about it.
“The main issues for me are the designs of the mini-roundabouts, there’s two of them, there’s one in Fredrick boulevard which I think is poorly designed on approach.
“And one on Baroness Drive – the road at the roundabout takes a very sharp bend to the left which means it’s almost a straight road to take the roundabout the wrong way, so it’s unnatural and badly designed.
“Vehicles approaching this take it the wrong way and meet oncoming traffic on the wrong road. It’s a daily frequency to hear cars blasting horns at each other just past this junction.”
He added: “We’re maybe looking for some traffic calming or possibly a change of design of the roundabout, possibly increased police presence in the area to monitor these roundabouts. Also maybe traffic cameras could be an option to make people think before they take the roundabouts the wrong way.
“We’re looking for something to be done before something more serious happens.”
In response to the concerns, Stuart Laid from Roads and Transportation Services said: “We assess our road casualty statistics on an annual basis and if we get enquiries we look at the enquiries we get on an individual basis as well.
“For the current financial year, we currently have 66 locations across south Lanarkshire where there have been groups of casualties.
“Resources are currently allocated to other projects.
“We are satisfied with the current layout and no plans to change the roundabout.”
In the petition document, Road and Transport Services wrote: ‘We are satisfied the current road layout is appropriate within Thorntonhall and do not intend to introduce alterations in the form of junction improvements or traffic calming at this time.
"The issues that have been highlighted by the petitioners are road traffic offences which are the responsibility of Police Scotland to enforce.
"We therefore conclude that there is no justification for further resources to be allocated to this area beyond the commitment to monitor annually along with the rest of South Lanarkshire. ‘
Elected members shared their concerns and expressed sympathy with the petitioner but decided that it is outside the council’s remit and referred the issue to Police Scotland for further investigation.
Councillor Graham Scott for East Kilbride East asked for the issue to be passed on to Police Scotland.
He said: “Much of this is in relation to criminality, because speeding is a criminal offence, taking a roundabout the wrong way is a criminal offence, but also there’s a slight structural problem for these petitions committee that we don’t invite the police because I’d have a lot of questions for them and I’m sure other members of this committee would as well.
“In many ways, Mr Aitken is aiming things at the council when it should be aimed at the police, there should be greater monitoring of that road.”
Clydesdale West councillor Eileen Logan said: “As Graham Scott has mentioned, SLC Is not a policing authority so we don’t have authority to come out and catch speeding motorists or motorists acting dangerously on the road and it is a shame that most of the problems we encounter is by people wishing not to obey the rules, or not knowing what to do on the road or just bad drivers.
“I feel that every councillor who is sitting here today, and I’m sure every singe councillor will deal with this, and I feel heart sorry for yourself and the problems that you’re encountering up in the area that you live in.
“I think that we’re coming to the end of this five year term and this is something that should take a high priority in the future council, it is not going away so I think it’s right that you should probably try to engage with the police.”
Councillor Mark Horshman for Clydesdale South agreed, saying: “I agree with my colleagues Eileen and Graham with regards to this.
“This is a police matter and I’d like for them to do a survey out there to see what the speeding is like on a sporadic basis over a certain period of time and see where the issue is and maybe report back to see where the issue is and if we can improve it.”
Blantyre councillor Maureen Chalmers said: “I would agree, I think we need the evidence, if the council has got anything to follow up on we need the evidence so that Roads and Transportation Services can work on proven information.”
Councillors decided to pass the issue to the police to gather evidence and information to be referred back to the committee for future decisions.
This was accepted by Mr Aitken who said: “I’m really happy with that and thank you for taking the time to take it on board.”
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