COURIER OPINION: Council must work with residents to tackle Broughty Ferry wall danger

Councils are often damned when they do and damned when they don’t.

When they fail to act in the knowledge there is a potential problem, they receive pelters – especially when things do go wrong.

And when they do take the bull by the horns to prevent a potentially dangerous situation, they can find themselves accused of creating a bureaucractic mountain out of a mole hill.

In Broughty Ferry, just such a row has flared up after a small number of householders were left facing huge bills for repairs to a dangerous wall which backs on to a major public road.

That the work needs to be done is not in question. The potential effects of a wall collapsing on to a public pavement and road are obvious.

Dundee City Council is doing the right thing in having the repairs taken forward.

But in a time of financial crisis, we trust the authority is willing to listen to residents’ concerns over the size of the bills they are facing – and to work with them individually to reach a suitable resolution.

By adopting a fair and just approach, the council can show it is not the faceless and heartless institution some believe it to be.