News / Road closure communication ‘lamentable’
SHETLAND Islands Council’s communication of a major road closure in the north of Shetland has been branded as “lamentable” and “completely inadequate” by a local resident.
It emerged on Tuesday that the only road leading into Vidlin will be closed during most of the working day for a period of more than two weeks. There will be no alternative route.
Head of roads services, Dave Coupe, said the closure had become necessary for “essential maintenance of the carriageway” after council engineers discovered that the single track road had started collapsing over a two kilometre stretch between Laxo and Skelberry.
A note displayed in the local shop said the B9071 will be closed daily from 9am to 1pm and again from 1.30 to 4.00pm from Monday 10 October to Tuesday 25 October.
Local businesswoman Helen Erwood said the “communication process for this road closure has so far been lamentable”.
She said an event “as catastrophic as this” needed to be communicated well in advance to allow local residents and businesses to make alternative arrangements.
“As a business owner I am very angry indeed that we have not been forewarned about something so significant well ahead of time,” she said.
While access for emergency services is guaranteed despite the full closure, other services needing to get in and out of the village during the day have not been notified. The Vidlin bus service will terminate at Laxo ferry terminal.
Coupe said his department had consulted with the Lunnasting community council, which had advised to carry out the work during the school holidays to minimise disruption.
He added that the road closure will be communicated via the council’s own website as well as the local media later in the week, and added that in his experience any earlier notification would have gone unnoticed.
“We open the road for half an hour in the middle of the day to allow people in and out because clearly we don’t want to inconvenience people for the whole day,” he said.
“I admit that this will be disruptive to some people, and we would apologise for that, but there really is no other way.”
Erwood said for a road closure of this length she would have expected the council to alert local residents directly, similar to the letters sent out by the utilities when water or electricity is off for planned maintenance.
“To find out about this from a mere notice in the shop window is just crazy and completely inadequate. It is simply not good enough for something this significant,” she said.
Coupe said his department has never had any complaints about its road closure communication, but would take some of the proposals discussed with Dr Erwood on board.
He said in order to get the work done within the autumn holiday period there was no other way than closing the road for long periods of the day.
“The problem is that if we leave it any longer then there is the real risk that in a hard winter the surface would disintegrate, which would cut off the Vidlin community completely,” he added.
“Clearly we don’t want that to happen, so we have to be pro-active and get this work undertaken.”
Meanwhile, engineering firm Malakoff has asked Shetland News to alert our readers that the Trondra Bridge will be closed for planned 20-minute periods on Thursday and Friday this week, as well as all next week, to allow the ongoing maintenance work on the bridge to be completed. The traffic measures will be introduced after the morning rush hour.
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