CHUCK OF ROUGHCAST CRASHES INTO TOWN CENTRE STREET

Sep 23 2011 by Jennifer Buchanan, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

THERE was traffic chaos at the weekend when a large chunk of roughcast fell onto a busy town centre road.

The main road through Maybole was closed to south bound traffic for 24 hours after a piece of harling on the Co-op building fell off, landing on the street, pavement and adjoining house.

No-one was injured but a car parked in the road was damaged.

And Maybole community leaders are furious that the condition of the building has deteriorate this far.

Chairman of the town’s community council, David Kiltie, said: “We’ve been complaining about the state of the building and scaffolding for years.

“It’s unsafe and it just underlines what we’ve been saying about the need for a bypass.

“The road through the town was not designed to deal with this quantity of traffic and it’s clearly causing problems in the buildings.

“It’s only a matter of time before someone get’s seriously hurt.”

Sergeant Mark Hornby from Girvan police office, said: “We received a call about a possibly unsafe building on the Whitehall section of Maybole’s main road on Saturday afternoon.

“We attended the site with road contractors Amey, who closed the road and put diversions in place.

“The road was reopened on Sunday afternoon after repairs were made to the building.”

Brian Connolly, independent councillor for Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton, has been campaigning to find a solution to the abandoned building for years.

He said: “I’ve had grave concerns about this building for a long time. The age of the building, lack of maintenance and passing traffic volume has all combined to cause this problem.

“The building is privately owned and I understand the reluctance of the local authority to get involved in what is a potentially expensive exercise, but we have reached the situation where this building is now a danger to residents and passing traffic on a trunk road.

“I have written to Lesley Bloomer, executive director of development and environment, saying it’s time we get involved and find a solution.”