DG Council want to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.
Thoughts on the council proposal to build a car park over Greensands Park, Dumfries
- DGC plan to bulldoze this park.
- To build a carpark for the Whitesands Flood Defence Project.
- However that has recently been made uncertain by the change in control of the Council.
- It may not happen.
- Meaning they will bulldoze this beautiful park for nothing.
Objections for social reasons:
The quiet route through the park is a much used active travel route. In particular children from the more deprived areas of North West Dumfries use it to travel to school, principally to The Academy and Loreburn Primary School. Siting a busy car park here means those children will be at risk from all the motor traffic as well as being exposed to the motor fumes.
Indeed there will be heightened conflict for this space because the car park is likely to generally be used by working people as it's not obvious enough for tourists to easily find so if completed this project will see workers arriving 8-9am and leaving 4-5.30pm at around the time this route is being used by the children.
There’s a kid’s playground here.
- People walk their dogs here.
- People cycle and walk here – it's an important active travel route
- It’s a safe place for kids.
- It has a boathouse.
- It has a memorial to a young man, lovingly remembered.
Objections for biodiversity reasons:
- Sand Martins nest by the bridge and love to fly and roll on the grass.
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| This is where the Sand Martins nest and play |
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Small Tortoiseshell and Orange Tip
butterflies live and breed in the verge by the river.
- Ducks, swans, herons and moorhen swim here and local people love to feed them.
- A large colony of crows and jackdaws live and nest here.
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| That's a lot of nests! |
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| ...for a lot of crows! |
- Toads can be found here.
Objections because of flaws in the scheme:
- The proposed car park has totally inadequate road access.
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| Access from George Street |
Access from Buccleuch Street
Nor will the proposed new access road adequately solve the traffic needs of a site that will get very busy in the rush hours and which is inadequately served by the adjacent quiet suburban roads including George St and Castle St.
It's entirely possible that people won't want to park here. Car drivers like to park in the very central car parks such as Loreburn car park and Whitesands car park but parking use dramatically falls off even a small distance from the town centre. Brooms Road car park for instance, which is about as close as this proposed new car park, is never full.
- Indeed there’s already a small car park here – and it’s nearly empty most of the time.
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| Does this place really need expanded car parking? |
- Procedural reasons for objection:
The money for these works failed to get passed in the Council budget.
- So no one knows what services may get cancelled if they squander money on this daft project.
In Mott McDonald's Supporting Statement they (the contractors for this work) state that the "Greensands improvements (sic) should be treated as a standalone operation." Source: page 4 of 12 of this document.
If it's standalone it's wrong to use flood resilience money from Scotgov to pay for it. As it's not part of the Whitesands flood defence project, it's standalone.
Also in that document I don't think the point made at 2.1 a. on page 2 of 12 is reasonable. This car park will not be a suitable alternative to the Whitesands when that car park is flooded as it's only a little higher so no sensible person would see the Whitesands car park under water and think "Oh I'll put my car in a nearby, almost equally floodable, car park."
Flood impact:
- This is an important flood plain – concreting it over means higher floods in the town.
Climate objection:
The building works are a huge cost of energy and materials adding to global climate change.
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Value objection:
- The contractors are based out of this region sucking wealth out of our community. (Contrary to community wealth building best practice).
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