Family fed-up with motorists lost with dodgy sat nav directions

Jul 26 2012 by Alison Rennie, Paisley Daily Express

A FED-UP family claim motorists are knocking on their door at 4am after getting lost with dodgy sat nav directions.

As reported exclusively in the Paisley Daily Express earlier this week, holidaymakers trying to get to long-term parking for Glasgow Airport have been driven round the bend by their sat nav sending them down a dead-end country road.

Burnside Place, in Paisley, is split down the middle by a field and sat navs are sending motorists to the wrong side of the road from the car park.

Unfortunately for the Martin family, it means frustrated drivers are knocking on the door of their farmhouse at all hours of the day and night looking for directions.

Catrina Martin lives in the house at East Candren Farm with her pensioner parents, Wilma, 71 and John, 73.

She said: “It’s a nightmare. It’s good news that they’re doing something about it but the first we knew about it was when we saw it in the paper.

“The council has left us in the dark about this.

“People are knocking our door at 4am in the morning. We have to keep getting up and directing them.

“We get about 25 people lost every day and it’s worse at the moment because it’s the summer holidays.

“We thought there was nothing that could be done because we’ve been complaining to the council for the last two years but have never had a response.

“We asked if they could put up a street sign but didn’t get anywhere.

“This has been going on for two years since the airport car park opened. My mum and dad are pensioners and they’re up and down with people at the door every night.”

Catrina moved home to help her parents cope with the stress of the number of people knocking on their door.

Wilma and John have lived in the house for 13 years and Catrina said it used to be quiet and private before the airport car park opened.

“The volume of traffic that comes up the road is unbelievable,” she said. “My dad runs a business, John Martin and Son Plasterers, and we’re having to secure everything at night because of the amount of traffic we get up here. We’ve got a guard dog but we’ve had to put him in a pen so that he doesn’t bite people’s tyres.

“We asked the council for funding to get our road repaired after Christmas but we ended up having to get it scraped back ourselves. Now it’s in a terrible state again with potholes all along it.

“My dad can’t go out on his scooter on the road any more because it’s too dangerous.

“We have to give the council access to the burn, which is beside the house, but they’ve not helped us with the state of the road.”

Renfrewshire Council has proposed changing the car park side of Burnside Place to West March Road to match the top of the road and put an end to the confusion.

Bosses at Direct Parking claim customers have missed flights because of the confusion and approached the council three months ago to do something about it.

A Renfrewshire Council spokesman said: “We understand people’s concerns to have this issue resolved.

“It’s a rather unusual and complex situation and hopefully if the proposed changes go though, that will be the best solution for everyone.”