THE tourism pressures on Stonehaven and the town’s struggling ability to cope were highlighted at last night’s meeting of Stonehaven and District Community Council.
From closed toilets, overflowing bins, unkempt and weedy streets and insufficient parking, the litany of concerns flagged by SDCC members made it clear Stonehaven is a tourist hotspot that is inadequately serviced and resourced to meet even the most basic of needs.
Last weekend’s perfect storm of idyllic weather conditions, continuing school holidays and an international visitor high season almost brought the town to melting point.
And even before they have started strolling along the seafront, visitors to Stonehaven are both causing and encountering problems due to the town’s lack of supporting infrastructure – there is inadequate parking and no provision for buses, prompting some to stop in ill-advised places.
Bus and parking mayhem
Chairman David Lawman said: ”We want people coming to the town, but having buses picking up passengers across the slipway at the harbour is surely not the best place.
”We desperately need areas where tourist buses can drop off passengers – then a place they can park.”
Mr Lawman also called for the town’s parking to be properly policed as an increasing number of vehicles were double parking or parking inappropriately.
Jim Stephen said: “What we need now is for Aberdeenshire Council to stand up and accept that we have a problem. We want Stonehaven to benefit from tourism, but we are overrun just now with tourists.”
Mr Stephen said he feared the problem would only get worse with an increasing number of cruise ships visiting Aberdeen – and bringing even more buses to the town.
And he said he had spoken to residents at the harbour who were ‘just done’ with the chaos and in fear for their cars being damaged in the congested, narrow streets.
This is not the bus referred to by Mr Lawman, but neither the Backies car park or the harbour piers are designed for coaches
Frustration at the lack of action by the local authority was voiced by Steve McQueen.
He said: ”They spent all that money doing a traffic management review and survey. Then they are saying they have no money to do any of it. What was the point?”
Town bursting and no Public toilets
When the discussions moved on to problems at the public toilets, Councillor Dawn Black revealed one poorly key-holder was all it took for the town’s loo doors to stay closed.
”The person who opens them called in sick on Saturday and Sunday morning, so there was no-one to open them,” she said.
Members of SDCC expressed their disbelief that the plug could so easily be pulled on such an essential amenity.
Mr Lawman said: ”Surely with all the council employees in the town, someone from the leisure centre or Town Hall could open them up – it would only take 10 minutes.”
Jim Stephen said: ”No other town in Aberdeenshire – no other town in Scotland – had the problems we had last weekend.
“If you are telling me that just one person has a key to the toilets, then our chair is quite right to ask for a bit of common sense.
“If you are going to promote this town, then you are surely going to have to up your game,” he added.
Food waste and bulging bins
The waste generated by visitors’ appetites for world-famous fish suppers and take-away pizzas quickly fills the bins lining the beachfront – which must be frequently emptied. But members heard this was only undertaken at the weekend, thanks to the willingness of a member of staff to do voluntary overtime.
And Jim Stephen said it was the bulky nature of the litter created that was the problem – whether it goes in at 3am or 3pm.
“It is down to what is inside the bins. Pizza boxes choke the bins,” he said.
Tidy streets – are you doing your bit, is the Council doing enough?
Mr Lawman painted a brutally honest picture of the appearance of much of Stonehaven – with weeds and abandoned sandbags a common feature.
“We are just not on top of it as a town,” he said.
And, calling for residents to take more responsibility around their own home, he said: “Are we just going to let it get worse year on year or are we going to do something about it?”
John Cruickshank spoke on behalf of the Horizon Project saying it had undertaken a street weed outing to help and highlight the problem – but the group was now operating at full capacity. A member of the public attending the meeting, Audrey Malcolm, suggested people sentenced to a Community Payback Order could to be put to work weeding the streets.
Looking to the impact brought by a reduced landscape services budget, Julie Lindeman asked if the cuts had been dealt equally across the Shire. She was answered by Cllr Alan Turner who said all communities would have similar complaints and questions.
This brought a furious riposte from Mr Stephen.
“There is not one town in Aberdeenshire that had to put up with what we put up with last weekend,” he said.
“Not one that had to put up with the footfall we had.
”We are not set up for it,” he said.
Feature image and image above – Beach Road was in chaos again today, with cars parked right up to the junction, in the turning area and on double yellow lines. Meanwhile mobile homes with nowhere to stay take up two to three parking spaces
