Aberdeen City Council has begun the removal of a pelican crossing deemed vital to the elderly and disabled – before carrying out a promised consultation with community groups.
The decision to remove the pedestrian link at the slip road between Rosemount Viaduct and Union Terrace Gardens, outside His Majesty’s Theatre, was made by councillors in June.
Surveys had shown its usage was “very low”.
But the plans were put on hold after it emerged that Aberdeen City Centre Community Council and the independent Disability Advisory Group (DAG) were not consulted over the decision.
It was believed that the local authority was in talks with both groups.
However, the chairman of the community council, Dustin Macdonald, said his group has not been contacted.
He said: “We weren’t consulted and it’s a bit worrying.
“We’re continuing to follow up and find out where communication fell through, it wasn’t communicated to me.”
Rosemount and Midstocket councillor Bill Cormie condemned the removal of the crossing.
Mr Cormie said he was told by council officers that, after consultation with DAG and the community council, the decision would be reviewed at Thursday’s enterprise, strategic planning and infrastructure (EPS&I) committee.
He said: “I came up the road tonight and the crossing is not functional.
“This is serious stuff, after being told that further consultation should have been done, and a decision made after the consultation came back.
“This is really an affront to democracy and in particular people with disabilities, the elderly and people with children crossing the road there.”
Mr Cormie said he received a string of phone calls and e-mails from local residents concerned at the actions last night.
Mr McDonald added: “The crossing is an important one, when they did the survey on it, their findings found that people were just skipping across that road.”
He said crossing roads in such a way was a trend “across the city” and it was a “negligible excuse” to remove the slip road crossing.
A traffic and pedestrian survey was carried out on the crossing by Aberdeen City Council before the ESP&I committee.
A spokeswoman for the council said they did so to “check the level of use” there, adding: “The findings of these surveys are brought to committee for consideration before decisions are made, to ensure that safety requirements and standards are met.”