Perth and Kinross Council spends £30,000 fixing uneven paving slabs

Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) has spent £30,000 fixing uneven paving slabs around the £27m Perth Museum, which only opened two years ago.

The repairs are said to be part of a drive to “help make Perth city centre look its best”, funded by the council’s new City Centre Improvement Taskforce fund.

But many have questioned why slabs needed replacing and relaying so soon when the whole area was resurfaced and upgraded from January 2022 ahead of the museum’s March 2024 opening.

In January 2022, PKC made what it described as a “major” investment resurfacing and upgrading St John’s Place, South St John’s Place, Kirkgate, Kirkside and King Edward Street to improve the public realm and make it more attractive for everyone visiting the city.

This week, PKC was unable to tell the Local Democracy Reporting Service how much it originally spent on laying the slabs.

However, in 2022, a council spokesperson described the resurfacing work on the streets surrounding St John’s Kirk and the former Perth City Hall building – where Perth Museum is housed – as a “major part” of the £27m redevelopment project.

Four years later, the council has spent £30,000 pulling some of those slabs back up and replacing or relaying them due to uneven slabs causing a trip hazard.

Last week, Perth and Kinross Council posted on Facebook to say: “Relatively small fixes can make a big difference to how our city centre feels. This week’s work has been continuing to replace broken and lifted slabs around Perth Museum, with the section between the museum and St John’s Kirk finished this week.”

The post sparked some confusion.

One resident responded: “If it was done properly to start with, they wouldn’t need to repair it; it’s not that long ago it got done.”

Another added: “Surely poor work given that the new museum has only been open a couple of years. Surely it should last longer than that?”

SNP council leader and Perth City Centre ward councillor Eric Drysdale – who introduced the £200,000 City Centre Improvement Taskforce fund in this year’s budget – said the pilot scheme would “result in visible improvements before the summer”.

In a video posted by the council, one of the workers who fixed the slabs told Cllr Drysdale: “What we’re doing is working for the council, fixing all the loose slabs and any broken ones and taking them out and redoing them, taking the concrete, taking the water out and rebedding it.”

Cllr Drysdale said: “It’s really good. It makes a huge difference to the appearance of the area.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Perth and Kinross Council why the slabs had to be replaced and/or relaid so soon.

A council spokesperson said: “The City Centre Improvement Taskforce funding has contributed £30,000 to the cost of repairing uneven paving stones around Perth Museum to help make Perth city centre look its best for residents, visitors and businesses.

“Paving stones can become uneven over time for a number of reasons, including ground settlement.

“As soon as we identified that some of the slabs were no longer lying flush, we made temporary repairs to prevent anyone from tripping over them. Permanent repairs were then completed this month.”