A community group was yesterday waiting to hear whether the council will agree to rerun a consultation on the proposed Cross Tay Link Road.
Scone and District Community Council (SDCC) expressed extreme dissatisfaction with a questionnaire distributed last month.
It was scathing about leaflets left in libraries, asking questions it claims are unconnected to the impact the road project could have on people’s health.
Questions included: ‘How often do you use the local path network?’, ‘To what extent do you feel there is enough greenspace areas for you to use for recreation?’ and ‘To what extent do the existing bus services meet your needs?’.
SDCC wants the local authority to rerun the consultation and ask the public more pertinent questions to get their views on how the new road is likely to affect their lives. It said the process carried out by design consultants Sweco seemed like “a meaningless tick box exercise”.
The group told PKC: “Only one question addresses health.
“It seems to us that this is a meaningless tick box exercise so Sweco can say a questionnaire was done. No one can draw any conclusion about the public’s opinion about the health issues related to the CTLR.”
A spokesperson for PKC said: “The health impact assessment is being carried out as part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the CTLR.
“The questionnaire is intended to gather information on existing local amenities that are important to local communities in the CTLR scheme area and identify where there is a perception of any gaps.
“The information gathered is then used as part of the baseline within the EIA report and all findings from it will be presented as an appendix when the EIA becomes publicly available in due course.
“The questionnaire is not intended as a means of gathering public views on the proposed scheme.”
Meanwhile, a PKC planning boss assured SDCC that work is “well underway” on investigating whether the CTLR can be shifted so it will not go through a major development.
Head of planning David Littlejohn wrote to the group, saying a number of surveys have been completed after suspicions were raised nothing was
being done to check whether the road
can be moved further north to avoid A and J Stephen’s planned Scone North scheme.
SDCC chair Vanessa Shand wrote to PKC last month after a resident claimed Sweco seemed unaware they were supposed to be investigating this option.
Mr Littlejohn replied that Sweco was working to see whether the CTLR could be shifted and would have an assessment
of this option “within the next two months”.
He wrote: “A number of surveys of the route of an alternative alignment have been undertaken.
“I can also advise that a comparative assessment of the current route and a northern alternative is currently being undertaken and will be completed within the next two months.”
