A MOSSBLOWN resident has hit out at South Ayrshire Council’s handling of his complaint over the use of an access route in the village.

Jim Bradley complained to the authority over the safety horses being allowed to use the Burnside Path near Annbank Parish Church.

According to Mr Bradley no health and safety risk assessment has been carried out on the path since November 2008.

Mr Bradley said his complaint to the council had been upheld – but that he had never been told by the local authority about the outcome.

He told the Advertiser: “The first complaint was resolved without even speaking to me and then at stage 2 it got even worse. It struck me as incompetent.

“Because we don’t have a local council here it’s hard to get things done. I had a site meeting with the Head of Service and that didn’t help matters.

“The key to the point here is health and safety which trumps everything, I just want the path to be safe to use.”

A South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said, “The council has been made aware of a safety concern in relation to the Burnside Path near Annbank Church, Annbank and are reviewing suitability of the current arrangements.”

Mossblown’s Jim Bradley has taken it upon himself to help his local area but believes that South Ayrshire Council’s complaint handling is ‘flawed’.

In a complaint that dates back to the 17 November 2021 there has not been suitable developments in what has been a long and needlessly drawn out process.

The issue with complaints handling involves an issue with horses being allowed on the Burnside path, while still unsafe to do so following the last Health & Safety Risk Assessment which was carried out in November 2008.

Talking about his dealings with the Councils complaints process Jim said, “The first complaint was resolved without even speaking to me and then at stage 2 it got even worse. It struck me as incompetent.

“Because we don’t have a local council here it’s hard to get things done. I had a site meeting with the Head of Service and that didn’t help matters.

“The key to the point here is health and safety which trumps everything, I just want the path to be safe to use.”

The long drawn out process did not stop there however requesting reports from Mr Bradley despite him previously providing the Council with copious amounts of information which Mr Bradley was kind enough to let me look over.

Despite providing these reports a response six weeks later saw all matters upheld without addressing any of the issues other than putting up some hard to read signs - especially from on a horse, on the fencepost.

When asked about the ongoing complaint issues a South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said, “The Council has been made aware of a safety concern in relation to the Burnside Path near Annbank Church, Annbank and are reviewing suitability of the current arrangements.”

It remains to be seen what will be done on the path.