Improvements or paying for the damage done.

Hold on to your hats Doonhamers, the High Street and Queensberry Square are about to get some TLC from the Council. The Council announced the improvements with quotes from Andy Fergusson and Tony Berretti from the Economy and Infrastructure Committee.

It’s always good to see money being spent on the High Street, but let’s be honest about the “forward‑looking package of works that responds directly to what local people tell us they want to see”, the paving part of this work is actually money being spent on repairing damage done by vehicles driving and parking in what is designed to be a pedestrian area.

We need to decide what the High Street is for and design for that accordingly. At the moment it’s designed for pedestrians and light vehicles, and it is supposed to be closed to all vehicles without passes for about 6 hours during the day. But cars, vans and trucks use it 24 hours a day as a route and parking spaces.

If it’s a vehicle space, design for that. If it’s a pedestrian space, design for that. This tinkering around the edges with new paving and no changes in traffic rules or enforcement will just see us back in the same situation of broken slabs and hasty repairs in a few months.