The replacement of the water mains into Newtonhill is well under way, with excavating the trench on Newtonhill Road beginning on 10 January. Traffic lights are in place at the east end of the road. But when the work finally reaches the west end, the junction with the A92 dual carriageway will have to close.

That will mean a diversion for traffic coming into the village from the Aberdeen direction. Traffic will have to travel further south to come back to Newtonhill and over the flyover. Stonehaven is the safe junction for this diversion.

Yes, it will add 10 minutes to journeys. However a significant concern is how will buses serve not only Newtonhill but Chapelton.

I asked council officers about this, and here is their reply:

“The conclusion was that no buses will get access through the slip road closure (Phase 4) and the possibility of overnight working has been ruled out.

“However, Bear Scotland has agreed to our suggestion that the ‘old’ bus stop outside Tesco on the slip road south from Newtonhill towards Stonehaven be reinstated for the duration of the works. Caledonia Water Alliance can arrange to deploy additional signage on Newtonhill Road to ensure that traffic exiting to A92 southbound are aware that buses would be using this bus stop.

“This means that all southbound services from Aberdeen will only serve the above bus stop during Phase 4 of the works.

“This includes Service X7 operated by Stagecoach East Scotland plus journeys on Stagecoach Bluebird Service 7B currently scheduled to terminate in Chapelton. These Service 7B journeys will continue south to Stonehaven and return northbound to Chapelton, from where they become inbound journeys to Aberdeen, therefore passengers on the outbound journeys, wishing to alight at stops within Newtonhill, can stay on board the bus as it heads northbound to Aberdeen via the village.

“The three ‘school’ buses operated by Stagecoach Bluebird, which are registered to carry farepayers to Portlethen Academy, will go into Newtonhill village, but of course will have to follow the diversion via Stonehaven in the afternoons to achieve this.

“Caledonia Water Alliance said they would be aiming to reduce the slip road closure (Phase 4) to a minimum but they won’t know until they start excavating.

“The possibility of delaying the closure until the school holidays in the first two weeks of April, to minimise the disruption to school transport, is also being considered and an update on this will also be provided when possible.

“Regarding Phase 3 of the works and the concerns raised regarding southbound traffic potentially queuing on to the A92, the traffic signals on Newtonhill Road are vehicle activated and therefore should prevent this happening in the evenings, when people are returning home.”