Extra road repairs on way in and around Hawick

Councillors Davie Paterson, Ron Smith and George Turnbull have welcomed the news that extra roads in their ward have been added to the list in line for repairs and that dates have been confirmed for works already announced.

A 140m stretch of Gladstone Street is scheduled to see resurfacing carried out in March 2017 at a cost of £100,000, and a 180m length of Drumlanrig Place and 100m of Wester Braid Road are to be improved next month, at a cost of £50,000 apiece.

A further £15,000 is to be spent on resurfacing a section of the B6357 near Newcastleton Golf Course in December.

Several rural roads will also be surface-dressed or patched this month and next, with a further £50,000 being spent near Newcastleton, £40,000 at Wester Alemoor and £20,000 between Colislinn and Newmill-on-Slitrig.

Those works are being funded by the £2.4m extra cash announced by the council in September, partly due to plans to build a 3G sports pitch in Peebles being shelved.

And now more roads have been identified as needing work, including patching at Saughtree, in Orchard Terrace, between Cogsmill and Shankend, and between Sundhope and Whitropefoot.

Mr Smith said: “These timings are, of course, at risk of changing should there be severe weather or other pressures, but it’s great to see target dates when repairs that we have long been calling for can be put in place.”

Mr Turnbull said: “These works have involved all the Hawick and Hermitage ward councillors working closely with council officials to achieve these improvements, and we must thank our constituents for being so patient, especially in these very difficult financial times, with so much pressure on council budgets.

“I am sure that all these works will make a major difference to all road users whether they are in town or in the rural areas of the ward.”

Mr Paterson added: “I am absolutely delighted that we, as councillors, working together, managed to persuade officials that we desperately needed extra expenditure in several areas of our ward, and I’m over the moon that some areas like Drumlanrig Place and Wester Braid Road are now being brought forward.

“We made it abundantly clear to officials that other, rural, parts of our ward were also urgently needing work done.”