Residents in a New Cumnock estate have won a five-year campaign to stop HGVs from making U-turns in their street.
The group, who live in Nursery View, waged a long-running battle to get signage erected in a bid to curb lorries from using their entrance as a turning area.
Now the beleaguered locals are celebrating after roads bosses caved in and finally erected a sign to ward off large vehicles turning in their cul-de-sac.
One of the residents is Rab Wilson, a leading figure in the campaign group Action for Safe and Accountable People’s NHS (ASAP).
Mr Wilson penned a letter to transport minister Jenny Gilruth MSP claiming lorries, especially HGVs, turning into the street did not have enough leeway to make it back onto the main road – because the roundel at the head of the cul-de-sac was too narrow.
He expressed concerns that young children playing in the street were in danger of being struck by any HGVs attempting U-turns.
And he even listed examples of HGVs reversing down the street and onto the two lanes of the A76 – before making their onward journey.
He said those manoeuvres were “dangerous”.
The issue was recently brought to a head following major road resurfacing works on the main A76 which runs past Nursery View.
Part of the works involved a closure of the road from 8pm to 6am.
However, some 40-tonne HGV drivers used Nursery View as a turning point for the vehicles – despite the fact that the former smallholding is not configured to accommodate them.
Now it seems transport and roads bosses have listened to residents’ concerns and installed a sign to make HGV drivers aware that the street is "unsuitable" for turning.
Mr Wilson said: “It would appear that the pen is much mightier than the sword in these matters.
“I think it must actually be around five years since we first raised this issue of signage with Transerv; the company who then had responsibility for the A76 trunk road.
“But all’s well that ends well! And Amey Roads appear to have pulled out all the stops and remarkably in a coincidental manner – considering all this has curiously happened the same week that we wrote to the transport minister.”
Mr Wilson added: “We are, of course, delighted to have our new sign in place.
“We hope that it acts as the deterrent as we seek to prevent 40-tonne HGVs attempting to negotiate our entrance and roundel in a very dangerous manner, posing an existential threat to the young children who frequent Nursery View regularly.”
A spokesperson for ScotlandTranserv said: “Following discussions with the Transport Scotland area manager for the A76, we are able to progress a design of a sign to deter HGV access to Nursery View.”
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