Whether the administration likes it or not, the trial of the pedestrianisation of our town centre will start the very minute that the area is cordoned off and work begins on the project.
Long before the first poorly laid paver matches its upside down neighbours in Eastbank Street, residents, who have serious reservations about the scheme, will be able to tell whether the result is what the planners intended from their computer projections or will it create the mother of all traffic jams?
Our Party is not against this idea in principle just so long as the traffic and pedestrians are able to be catered for successfully and without too much disruption.
But Council hypocrisy continues to prevail when the same bureaucrats, who would never dream of flying on an untested aircraft, are perfectly content to inflict upon us a road scheme that has had NO trial layout prior to its commencement. Nor are they adhering to their previous pronouncement that money CANNOT be moved from one capital project to another where grants are concerned.
This sleight of hand of switching finance from the eastern Park and Ride creation to the Chapel Street pedestrianisation scheme has all the hallmarks of a Tommy Cooper conjuring trick when twinned with their above-mentioned hypocrisy.
The lengths to which this administration is prepared to go, in order to railroad their schemes through, once again highlights their continuing charade of resident consultation and their false pretence of listening to public opinion.