Residents in rural Fife say potholes in private roads are preventing access for emergency vehicles.
People living along a country track near Kingskettle are calling for Fife Council to help mend the road surface, which they say is causing a health and safety risk.
Laura Mysak, 38, who lives along Rameldry Mill Road, said there had been an incident in which an ambulance was unable to negotiate the road.
She said: “A small group of residents from the road approached the council last year, me included, and were told that there was no budget available and we’d have to raise the money ourselves.
“It will cost £180,000 to have the whole two kilometres of road tarmacked and there’s no way we can raise this amount of money.
“I think the problem with our road is that it’s a rural farm road and used to only have a couple of properties on it, but the council have been granting planning permission for so many new homes to be built, and nothing’s been done about the state of the road.”
The council has allocated £150,000 across Fife for emergency repairs on private roads. A total of £65,700 is being spent in north east Fife.
“They’ve got £150,000 in the budget and a councillor said to us that’s not going to go far,” said Ms Mysak.
“That’s fair enough, but we’re in a situation which is pretty diabolical and we’re trying to raise awareness that it’s a health and safety risk and something really needs to be done about it.
“Maybe we could raise a bit of money ourselves, but we can’t do it all.”
Another resident, Alastair Stewart, said: “We all pay our council taxes and road taxes etcetera But the council do not collect bins, as they won’t come down the road. Ambulances won’t come along the road. And the school bus will only come part way in.
“The road as a core path is used by walkers, dog walkers, cyclists and horse riders as well as the residents. It would great if the council could make the road more user-friendly like the forestry commission do their roads.”
Local Conservative councillor Andy Heer said tarmacking farm tracks like Rameldry Mill Road was not an option for the local authority.
He added: “I think what we have to say is that the £150,000 wasn’t intended for cases like that. What’s going to have to be done there is some funding will have to come from the householders, with the possibility of maybe finding funding from somewhere else.”
Fife Council senior manager Alastair Hamilton said: “Previous developments required some improvements to be undertaken to the access road which were completed to comply with the conditions on the planning consents.
“If neighbours have concerns about the condition of the access road then we can investigate the matter and determine whether the terms of the original conditions are still being met.”
