Bears Way row rumbles on . . .

East Dunbartonshire Council’s design for a cycle friendly roundabout has been shortlisted in the Community Links PLUS design competition, which aims to encourage people to walk or cycle.

The roundabout would be part of the next phase of the council’s controversial Bears Way project to create segregated cycle lanes along the A81.

The proposal is one of 10 from across Scotland that are up for an award and could see the council win cash from the Community Links grants scheme - which provides match funding for the creation of cycling network infrastructure in Scotland for everyday journeys.

Duncan Cumming, an independent councillor for Bearsden, is now demanding for an emergency special council meeting, which would be open to the public, to be held in Bearsden within the next two weeks.

He is calling for a ‘comprehensive, detailed and meaningful public community consultation exercise’ to be carried out with conventional public meetings to allow people to ask questions about the project - which was put on hold before Christmas until the impact of phase 1 has been considered.

Councillor Cumming said: “I was outraged to learn that the council has been shortlisted for an award.

“The Bears Way project has been very unpopular with many local residents.

“The council is meant to be consulting with people about this project yet I had absolutely no knowledge of this roundabout and nor did the many hundreds of people who came to the so-called drop-in consultation session last November. Local people deserve to know the facts.”

The Herald’s Facebook page was also inundated with comments about the council being up for an award.

Graeme McIntosh said: “Ha ha surely it’s not the 1st of April!”

Elaine Voy said: “Seriously? For clown of the year?”

Mark Esdaile said: “The Billy Connolly is coming out in me, how the F*** can EDC be up for an award that the entire population is against?”

Michael Sherry said: “Another thing we don’t need! The road was perfect the way it was!”