Maybole bypass call after plaster fall

Jul 24 2009 by Edwin Lawrence

A MASSIVE volume of Open Championship traffic passing through Maybole is being blamed for a plaster collapse in the Town Hall.

And the incident has led to renewed calls for a bypass.

The collapse occurred early last week as traffic began to build up for the Open at Turnberry.

Part of a ceiling in the hall’s interior staircase gave way.

And plaster fell all over the stairs leading to the council chambers and lesser town hall.

Maybole Community Council chairman Peter Mason later attended a meeting in the council chambers.

He immediately asked: “Was this caused by the extra volume of traffic passing through Maybole on its way to Turnberry for the Open?”

Community councillors had been told by police last month that the forecast was for between 8000 and 8500 extra vehicles per day heading to Turnberry.

About 60 per cent of these would travel through Maybole, with the remainder taking the ‘High Road’ via Alloway, Culroy, Enoch Lodge, Culzean and Maidens.

Naturally, the return trips double the onslaught of traffic through the town.

A bypass has been talked about in Maybole since the 1950s.

And proposed routes have been on the drawing board for 30 years.

But as yet no timetable is in place to deliver a Maybole bypass.

Following the plaster collapse, Maybole Community Council moved quickly to put a banner on the side of Maybole Castle.

It read simply: Support a bypass for Maybole. And it was clearly visible to all the Open traffic heading for Turnberry.

The council resisted the temptation to have a protest during the Open, so as not to spoil visitors’ days out.

Members have in the past organised a march in the High Street, which forms part of the A77.

And they have protested by continuously using the pelican crossing in the middle of the High Street.