A DOON Valley councillor has batted off claims that she received preferential treatment from East Ayrshire Council

One Patna resident has been left puzzled after a small stretch of pavement out side of Councillor Elaine Dinwoodie's home was relaid. But Cllr Dinwoodie has shrugged off the claims, saying that she is not the only person to raise concerns over the state of the ground.

Mr Kelly has written to East Ayrshire Council Chief Executive, Fiona Lees, to raise his complaint after he submitted a Freedom of Information request to the council over the work.

The council took on a private contractor to carry out the work on Jellieston Terrace. The cost for the work was not taken form the everyday roads budget, the area that was resurfaced has not been adopted by the Ayrshire Roads Alliance but is maintained by Housing Asset Services and as such the costs, which came in at £4,127.75, were taken from the Housing Revenue Account. These works were requested by Housing Asset services.

But the local Councillor says that the lands on which the work was carried out does not belong to her and that owners and tenants in neighbouring properties were also unhappy at the state of the pavement.

Mr Kelly claims that the work was carried out specifically because it was directly adjacent to Cllr Dinwoodie's home.

In a correspondence with Ms Lees, Mr Kelly said: "The aforementioned repair work was all the more suspicious and appears to be rather myopic, as this was the public walkway in front of Labour Councillor, Elaine Dinwoodie’s house.

"However, Councillor Dinwoodie and her family actually use this space to park their vehicles.

"This has gone on for years. The Dinwoodie's also use the foot path to drive over to reach their driveway. This is not illicit, but using the area as a carpark is."

The councillor vehemently denies the accusations of calling in specialist treatment as well as the claims that she used the ground as a car park.

Cllr Dinwoodie said: "It was done because it's on council grounds. The ground does not belong to me.

"There have been complaints about it over the years. It's been about five years that people have been complaining about it. It just so happens that it's outside my house. It's totally outrageous to say that I have received special treatment. I have been a councillor for 17 years and I have never received any special treatment.

"It's not as if I complained about it one week and it was fixed the following week. This has been an issue that a few folk in the street have complained about.

"The neighbours have complained about it as well. It was dangerous before the repairs. It wasn't pot holes, they were more like craters."

She added: "I park my cars in my drive way. I do not use the ground as a car park."

East Ayrshire Council are now considering the complaint in accordance with the Council’s Complaints Handling Procedure.

The council declined to comment on the matter until the complaints process has been completed.