Buddies angry at street's 'bumpiest road' label

Jul 15 2008 Paisley Daily Express

ANGRY Buddies have hit out after a Paisley road was named the bumpiest in Scotland.

Fed-up drivers slammed Renfrewshire Council bosses saying there were more roads in the town as bad or even worse than the named and shamed Castle Street.

They called for action after the road in the West End was listed the second worst-kept road in the UK being beaten only by a road in Leeds with a giant crater.

Motorists find themselves rumbling down the road over deep holes and bumps.

Twenty-four-year-old Alan Pollock lives in nearby Clavering Street and he agreed with the latest study which highlighted Castle Street.

He said: “It’s bad but can’t be the worst street in Scotland. There are certainly worse than this, even in Paisley. You should see my street.”

Alan added: “It is about time, though, that the council did something about the roads in the town. They are a mess.”

Taxi driver Gordon Smith, 49, agreed with the findings.

He said: “It has to be one of the worst road surfaces in Paisley and most of my customers moan to me about it. So I wasn’t really surprised when I heard about it.

“What needs to be done is the council need to take off all the old tar and renew it. You can see all the old cobble stones coming through. It’s like a patchwork quilt.”

Gordon Anderson, 60, of Wishaw is carrying out work at licensed premises throughout Scotland, including a number in Paisley.

He said: “I have seen a lot worse surfaces than this on my travels around the country but it is not nice to drive down and is in a bit of a bad way.

“I used to design surfaces for airfields and roads when I was in the army and all I can say about this surface is that it is poor workmanship.”

The poll was carried out by UK Continental Tyre research.

A local authority road maintenance (ALARM) survey suggested there are currently over one million potholes across the country, but there is a £1billion shortfall in the budgets needed to fix them.