The team of men who run Wallyford recycling centre have been given a ridiculously impossible job to do.
Yet even so, they have formed themselves into a self-contained, intelligent, disciplined and tactically structured team.
But, like any combat situation, if left too long under extreme conditions, inevitably there will be casualties.
It’s really only a matter of time.
Since the closure of Macmerry depot, these men have been managing uncompromising droves of cars coming into and out of a depot never designed for this level of traffic. All day, rain, sleet or shine, they are directing vehicles though a minefield of hazards. Additionally, more often than not, vehicles are backed up right out onto and up the main road in both directions.
Unlike Macmerry, you can’t drive in one direction through Wallyford depot: you must park, dispose of your items, then reverse out of your parking space. The men do their best firstly to halt the traffic flow, then direct reversing drivers safely out, all while people are cutting in and out between the cars with arm-loads of belongings. The men are breathing in car fumes all day long and are relentlessly on high alert looking out for potential danger from the various simultaneous active fronts.
Either Macmerry needs to reopen or Wallyford must be extended and redesigned so that traffic can flow in one direction without requiring heavy traffic management, with a separate exit incorporated further up the road.
East Lothian Council must recognise their revision has failed and immediately halt this collision course before the dreadful accident that is waiting happens.
Lorraine Glass
Bothwell Avenue
Haddington
