An Aberdeen community calling for a historic street to be upgraded have been told to either perform the work themselves or pay for the council to do it.
Residents in Old Aberdeen have appealed for the city council to take formal responsibility of a stretch of The Chanonry, a scenic route used to reach St Machar Cathedral which has become riddled with potholes in recent years.
The council has argued that it does not have responsibility for the unadopted section at the end of the 300-year-old thoroughfare.
Ownership details are sketchy and the stretch is deemed as under private ownership.
Aberdeen City Council has now suggested that residents should cover the cost of the repairs they are campaigning for – or borrow equipment to do it off their own backs.
A spokeswoman said: “The particular stretch of road is privately maintained, although it is a public road.
“It is not a road adopted by the city council and therefore, like many others within the city, we will not be maintaining it.
“There are three potential options the residents can consider.
“The first is they request the council to adopt the road and bring it up to an adoptable standard, the second is we can carry out a repair and the bill is paid for by the residents, and the third is we can provide them with the materials and they could organise for the work to be carried out.
“We welcome feedback on the options from the neighbouring residents on the Chanonry.”
But last night, Anne and Andrew Louden who live on the stretch, accused the council of being “unwilling” to help repair the “appalling” road.
Mrs Louden said: “The road is in an appalling state, its terrible for pedestrians and road users alike. And as it is a major street for tourism in the area, something needs to be done.”
Her husband added: “The council charges people to park here and have contributed to the upkeep in the past, yet seemingly are unwilling to now. Will we be getting a reduction in our council tax, if the council won’t be contributing to the road’s repairs?”
The authority’s current road adoption policy is to adopt only those that are up to highway standards – which this area of The Chanonry is not.
Residents at a recent meeting of Old Aberdeen Community Council were left flabbergasted at the notion they could end up out of pocket for the repair of a public road.
Group chairman, Dewi Morgan, described the road as a “key tourist route” and questioned whether the “stalemate” was an acceptable state of affairs.