LAUNCHING a petition against a “dangerous” crossing in Galashiels would be a “waste of time”, a meeting has heard.

A council proposal to put an island between Melrose Gait and Eildon Housing’s new project on the opposite side of the C77 was met with resolute opposition from the town’s community council.

But despite the objections, a meeting of the group last week heard that the local authority has now put the crossing in place.

Galashiels councillor Euan Jardine, of the Conservatives, said it was “disappointing that the council pushed ahead and rushed it”.

Fellow town representative Harry Scott told the virtual gathering that John Curry, Scottish Borders Council’s (SBC) director of infrastructure and environment, confirmed that an informal survey would be carried out to monitor the traffic at the site.

Mr Scott added: “It’s still not finished so an option is to raise a petition to have it looked at again.

“There’s no point in saying it’s unsafe because we think it’s unsafe, you really need to do your own survey.

“You’d have to have some facts and figures to present to the audit committee.”

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But community councillor John Birnie said that SBC “ignored” a 27-page report outlining the dangers of the road when plans were announced to build a waste transfer station up at Easter Langlee.

“To get a petition to let them know that this road is dangerous, they already know that it’s dangerous, it’s been going on for so long,” said Mr Birnie. “They’ve had all this information before because all this was produced when they went to build that waste transfer station.

“Getting a petition together is just a waste of time.”

Mr Birnie called on the community council to “show some strength” in opposing the plans in order to show the council that “if we say no, we mean no”.

Chairing the meeting, Rick Kenney said that the crossing “doesn’t look very wide or very safe”.

But he added that it is ultimately up to SBC to make the final decision on the matter, regardless of the community council’s opposition.

“Ultimately the local council are the arbitrators taking the decisions,” he said. “The council have taken the decision and they’ve built the thing.

“What we need to do is write to the council and tell them that we’re not happy and ask that this be looked into again.

“No matter how frustrated we are, we cannot change the fact that the council have taken the decision on this.”

Mr Jardine said that the community council should work in conjunction with the newly-established Melrose Gait Residents Association to oppose the crossing.