A north-east man claims he is being forced to fork out thousands of pounds to repair a rural road near his home.
Hatton man John Pilkington says he has been ordered to pay £14,000 towards the road being fixed, even though he was not consulted about the plans in the first place.
He said Dr Gordon Masson, who lives near Winchester but owns property in and around Hatton, applied for the Hobshill to Easter Auquharney road to be fixed as part of an Aberdeenshire Council rural road scheme, which involves the council paying half of the costs and the residents paying the rest.
Mr Pilkington said Dr Masson has already paid half of the bill, which is £120,000, but did not tell any of the other residents he was applying for the scheme or consult them on their views about the plans.
Mr Pilkington, 41, who lives at Cottage 1, Easter Auquharney with his wife Claire and two children, said that he has now received a letter from Dr Masson telling him to pay his share of the repair bill.
He said he will be bankrupt if he is forced to pay.
He said: “It is extortion.
“Other residents living on this road have been given bills too. Some for £3,000, some for £24,000. We weren’t consulted about this.”
Mr Pilkington has said, however, that the road is in urgent need of repair and that he would not mind paying for a new one if it was an investment.
He said that with all the heavy traffic coming from the farms, the road will need repairing again in a year or so.
“It is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said.
“We, the residents, have no problem with fixing the road, but it will not last.
“Dr Masson owns a superfarm and the amount of heavy traffic coming and going from it will damage the road again in no time.
“We have been told that if we don’t pay we will be taken to court. It is ridiculous.
“The council dishing out this money is of no benefit to the taxpayer whatsoever.”
Yesterday Mr Pilkington received a letter from the council’s infrastructure services committee stating that no work would begin on the road until a meeting involving all the residents had been held.
He said that it is a “bit of a bonus”, but he does not believe it will help much.
Speaking on behalf of Dr Masson, solicitor Brian McCombie, who works for Masson and Glennie in Peterhead, said he was hopeful to resolve matters amicably.
An Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said the scheme is called the Private Unadopted Roads scheme which was approved by the infrastructure services committee in March.
The report that was put before the committee states that a budget of £300,000 was made available from the council towards the maintenance of private roads.
The report says: “Funding has not previously been available to maintain these roads which have deteriorated over the years and a sum of money has now been allocated to allow relevant maintenance work to be undertaken.”
The council spokesman said the road application for Hatton was approved in October last year.