West Stirling Street, Alva, Clackmannanshire, roadworks were not up to Clackmannanshire Council standards

Alva Community Council last week met with a Clackmannanshire Council roads officer, following complaints that bad patching work left West Stirling Street “bumpier than ever before”.

And the council is in agreement that works were not carried out to the standards expected.

Loose chippings from the surface dressing, applied to extend the lifespan of the road following the patching, were also said the be in place for much longer than anticipated.

Community councillor Phil Ward, who met with the officer around the western side of town last Tuesday, wrote in his report: “It was agreed that the road was in need of another sweeping in order to remove the last of the loose gravel and this will be arranged.

“The officer agreed that the initial padding of the road had been of poor quality and claimed that the worst of it had been dealt with before the surface dressing was in place.

“I expressed my scepticism of this since it was still pretty rough in places. We stood by the bus stop at the western end of town on the eastbound carriageway.

“Because of the dressing, it is almost impossible to notice the bumpiness of the road, however, we certainly felt how bumpy it is when a passing bus shook the pavement.

“Because there is not much likelihood of the roughness causing damage to vehicles, and because the nearby houses are back away from the road, it is unlikely that anything will be done to smooth it out.

“However, she will report back to the roads department who will make a decision.”

A Clackmannanshire Council spokesperson told the Advertiser this week: “One phase of the recent roadworks on West Stirling Street was not carried out to the standards expected by the council.

“A review will be carried out and remedial work will be scheduled in the near future.”

According to information on the council's website, surface dressing is a proven maintenance technique which extends the life of the road at just quarter of the price of full resurfacing.

The technique involves spraying a coating of bitumen onto the road surface, this is followed by one or more layers of hard stone chippings.

As the bitumen sets, the chippings stick to the road and are embedded by rolling in as well as vehicles that carefully run on the surface.