Perth and Kinross Council is being urged to pilot a week-long scheme to have traffic lights simply switched off in a radical bid to cut congestion.
Motorists and pedestrians may have to negotiate Blairgowrie’s busy town centre without the aid of signals after residents demanded action.
Details of the controversial move from Perth and Kinross Council were given at a recent meeting of the roads department, attended by Blairgowrie and RattrayCommunity Council and members of the public.
It has still to be approved by councillors.
However, community council chairman David Bailey said he hoped the planned week-long pilot project would work, describing the present situation in the Wellmeadow area as “a shambles”.
He said residents had been “heartened” by the talks that have taken place between both bodies and spoke of his optimism at the initiative.
“The council’s roads officer has been very receptive and they employed aspecialist company who came up with four suggestions, with the first one being to remove the traffic lights,” he said.
“A survey was done on our Facebook page and the unanimous majority of people want something done.
“This option is the easiest one and we are looking forward to it going ahead as there were five-minute queues before andpedestrians crossing the road willy-nilly.
“You had mothers with buggies and some disabled people not waiting until the pedestrian crossing changed.
“Obviously there won’t be theprotections when the lights are taken away, but we’ve been told council officers will monitor the situation.”
Councillor Caroline Shiers, one of the representatives from the Blairgowrie and Glens ward, said she wants a solution.
“Following a review of the traffic lights in Blairgowrie, the council used external consultants who suggested we take thetraffic lights away for a week,” she said.
“We were told the traffic will bemonitored by council officers but they didn’t give a timescale of when this will happen. The lights will be assessed over time but we need a long-term solution.”
It would not be the first time a council had experimented with turning off the lights. A trial scheme in Portishead in 2009 reportedly resulted in a halving of typical journey times with no loss of pedestrian safety.
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