Councillors are expected to back plans to open the centre of the north-east’s largest town to traffic despite objections.
Peterhead’s Chapel Street was closed to vehicles along with part of Marischal Street more than a decade ago in an effort to boost the town’s shoppin district.
However now the local authority are pushing efforts to regenerate the ailing town centre and believe the reopening of Chapel Street will boost falling trade.
An anonymous objector has raised a number of concerns about noise, damage to the cobbled surface and the lack of new parking bays to encourage people to shop locally.
In a report to the Buchan Area Committee, Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure chief Stephen Archer responded to the concerns raised.
He said: “Although there would be no additional parking facilities
being provided by the proposals other than two disabled parking bays
and an loading and unloading bay, the proposals will nevertheless allow through traffic into these streets.
“It is anticipated that this will allow shoppers to be more aware of the facilities available in the town centre and thereby raising the interest and benefiting the local commercial environment.”
Mr Archer added: “The existing granite setts surface has withstood the effect of heavy bus traffic and delivery vehicles for many years.
“While the volume of traffic using these streets will increase, it is anticipated that there will be no significant increases in the volume of large or heavy vehicles and therefore the stresses most likely to cause damage to the granite setts will not increase significantly.”
Works approved on the street, in the event of it opening to traffic again, include the installation of bollards and the re-siting of bus shelters.
Traffic on the reopened street would flow in just one direction and a 20mph speed limit would be put in place.
At the moment, only buses and emergency vehicles are allowed into the area.
The works would to cost in the region of £73,600 and are expected to be approved by councillors on Tuesday.