Aberdeenshire Council will review how quickly it responded to speeding fears in a north-east village, after residents endured a three-year wait for traffic calming measures.
Proposals to slow down drivers ignoring speed limits on two key roads in Newmachar were first put forward in 2016.
Members of the council’s Garioch Area Committee were yesterday told the project to bring new traffic islands and cycle lanes to Hillbrae Way and chicanes to Corseduick Road could start in September.
The total costs for the work is estimated to be around £30,000 and would be met from the council’s 2019/20 capital plan.
But as councillors welcomed that news yesterday, East Garioch councillor Martin Ford raised concerns about the speed at which the authority responded to reports of motorists driving too fast on the pair of roads.
Committee chairman Fergus Hood told committee members: “I’m pleased to see there are now concrete proposals in place for making these improvements, that timescales are in place and that a funding stream has also been identified for these works.
“I very much welcome the progress and I’m sure residents will too.”
Mr Ford echoed those thoughts, saying: “I am not a roads engineer, but as a layperson these seem to be entirely appropriate provisions.”
Nonetheless, he added: “We must consider this a learning experience.
“It has now been more than three years between establishing that we have a problem and actually putting something on the ground.
“I have to say bluntly the council should be taking action a lot quicker than that when we have an acknowledged speeding problem.”
The committee agreed to instruct Aberdeenshire Council’s head of roads to create a report on the delay of the project.
