Grangemouth residents anger after broken fencing damaged by storms painted not repaired

Broken fences have been painted rather than fixed say angry residents in Grangemouth, who are still waiting for repairs to damage done in February.

The painting is just part of regeneration work being carried out by Paragon Housing Association but some residents say the repairs should have been made first - and a lot more quickly.

Paul Smith, who lives in Strowan Road, Grangemouth, says several fences blew down in the February storms and some are still lying about the houses' drying greens and streets.

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He said: "The paint company came round and were just told to paint the broken fences that were lying down on the grass and in drying areas.

"There are other fences with slats missing and bits broken off the top and they have all just been painted!

"There was a broken fence just outside my garden. I complained numerous times and they did remove it eventually but they left a broken spike sticking up that's really dangerous!"

Mr Smith says the painters have simply done what they were asked to do and he has no problem with their work - but he can't understand why the fences have not been repaired first.

Paragon is currently carrying out work to paint the windows on the houses and say they do intend to repair the fences as soon as possible but have been delayed by bad weather and waiting for materials.

But Mr Smith says it is unacceptable that the housing association have not told tenants and residents when they can expect to see the repairs done.

"They still have scaffolding up on the houses although that work finished weeks ago - we're hoping to get work done on our garden but we don't know when we'll be able to start it."

Mr Smith - who is a private resident - says the regeneration work is badly needed as the lack of repairs makes the whole area look run-down.

"It looks like the Bronx!" he said.

A spokesperson for Paragon Housing Association said: "Within flatted blocks properties in Grangemouth, including the block Mr Paul Smith resides, a survey was carried out prior to the painterwork commencing.

"The survey took elements such as common fencing, fenceposts, slabbing, clothes poles, block entrance doors/windows etc into account.

"Since the initial survey and costings, most of our Grangemouth estates experienced some storm damage (February 2024) particularly around communal fencing within blocks and the estate.

"At the time, loose and dangerous fencing was taken down and left in a safe location for partial re-use at a later time where possible. Due to the extent of the storm damage particularly around fencing, a further measure of communal and non-communal works had to be undertaken.

"This inevitably delayed the original site start albeit it did give us the opportunity to include the storm damage fencing works into the original planned maintenance works taking advantage of larger scale rates.

"To add a further complication to the start date, and due to the profile of some top fencing rails not being stock items, the appointed contractor placed an order with a local sawmill to manufacture the profile timbers required.

"This took approximately six weeks to turn around. Our appointed contractor has these timbers now and an initial first coat of timber treatment is being applied before going to site.

"The painters who were already on site and with our agreement have continued to undertake timber treatment at all fencing irrespective of the fence condition.

"Some of the fencing will be getting re-used along with new parts where required to minimise labour and material cost for all. It has been agreed with the painting contractor that they will return on completion of the fencing work to treat all new timbers at no costs to the association."

"We would hope that given we are moving into what would normally be better weather conditions, the works should be completed soon."

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