PEEBLES Community Council has been advised to “leave council officers to get on with their job” as consultations could lead to delays of work progressing in the town.

The statement came after community leaders told elected members go back to council officers instructing them that nothing should be “set in stone” regarding the Rosetta Road build-outs until they had run it by the community council.

Temporary build-outs were put in place on the busy road following safety concerns raised by parents.

But the owner of the Premier shop said sales were adversely affected and requested that the build-out be moved from the shop side – a compromise he and parents are said to be happy with.

Following the request that the final proposal be brought before Peebles Community Council, Councillor Heather Anderson said: “I spoke to officers and they clarified that there are areas where to you are statutory consultees and you are advised about changes to traffic regulations, road works and instances where there are going to be delays in the town but you can’t be consulted in advance about everything that is undertaken.

“There are many areas where Councillors are consulted and there’s then an onus on the Councillor to raise that with the community council if they want.”

Responding to this Chairman Lawrie Hayworth said: “This will be in spirit of co-operation and community engagement you can all just put up with what we decide.

“It is a concern that there are works undertaken that have an impact. We have a statement saying we have taken due account of the pedestrian safety with regard to our plans for the build-out and we are getting feedback from our community to us as community councillors that a one sided build-out doesn’t work for them. I am only voicing what members of the community are saying to us, I understand that someone wants to maintain the level of business in their shop but equally we want to pay some recognition to the parents taking their children to school and trying to cross the road. Therefore I’m not wholly comfortable with this.”

Councillor Anderson added: “What officers are saying is that they cannot be in a situation that they submit every action that they are going to undertake in Peebles to the community council before they go ahead and do it. So we have to work with councillors when we are alerted to distinguish what we think would be significant and make sure you’re aware of it.

“We can’t expect officers to submit everything to the community council for approval, it’s not submitted to the Council for approval. They are basically professionals who are following regulations so your gripe is with us.”

Mr Hayworth raised the safety island which was proposed for the Old Town and was thrown out in favour of an alternative option following intervention from the community council.

Councillor Stuart Bell said elected members are getting informal representation from officers saying “it’s getting difficult to do things in Peebles because the community council is taking a long time in terms of having conversations about things”.

He added: “Officers have a responsibility, we as councillors and community councillors have a responsibility to deal with officers in careful way, to respond to accept their rights and responsibilities and then to leave them to get on with it and then, when it’s decided, deal with it. If we push too much that actually chokes up the processes in the council.”

Mr Hayworth said the community council acts as “servants” to the community and seeks to give constructive feedback to officers.

“I do hear you Councillor Bell, we have officers who act in the best interests of the community of the Borders, but we really appreciate to have the opportunity to have input into that process. Sometimes we have works undertaken that the community feels could have had an input that would have had a different solution adopted.”

Councillor Kris Chapman who lives on Rosetta Road said he is engaging with the parents regarding the final outcome for Rosetta Road.

“I am undertaking that duty of care to make sure that the public using the crossing are up to date and I am getting information from them and feeding back to officers. They are happy with what is being looked at moving forward. I have asked the officers for timescales now that we have an acceptance from the shop owner that they are happy with the compromise, and we’ve now got a consensus from the parents and other members of the community that use that crossing that they are also happy.”