Caroline Brodie
Fears have been raised that cracked city-centre paving slabs are increasingly being replaced with ugly surfacing for a “quick fix”.
Dustin MacDonald, chairman of Aberdeen City Centre Community Council, has expressed concerns over the council’s increasing use of bitmac to repair prominent city streets.
Mr MacDonald said the substance had been used to replace broken slabs in Belmont Street and Union Street in recent months.
Yesterday a city council spokeswoman insisted the surfacing was only a temporary fix.
Mr MacDonald highlighted recent repairs carried out on Belmont Street, outside the Triple Kirks bar.
He said: “The quality of these repairs is not good and in places it has been laid a bit lower than the surrounding stones so it is a trip hazard.
“When I first saw it being used, I just assumed it was a quick fix and they would come back to fix it properly but now I am seeing more and more of it and I’m concerned that it is being used as a permanent fix.
“There are big black blobs of the stuff appearing everywhere.”
Councillor Bill Cormie said the material was also being used to patch up repairs in his ward.
The Midstocket and Rosemount member said: “It looks terrible and it gives a really bad impression to visitors.
“They started laying it up at Midstocket about a year-and-a-half ago and that was bad enough but now it is creeping into the city centre.
“It’s ugly and it changes the entire look of the streets.”
Yesterday, an Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman confirmed the authority did not have a policy of replacing pavement slabs with tarmac in the city centre.
She added: “A utility company carried out emergency works in Belmont Street and is now waiting for a specialist contractor to replace the damaged cobblestones.
“Tarmac is used where slabs are damaged by tree roots as tarmac is more flexible until a more permanent solution can be programmed.”
