[Spinalman]

The East Street closure and disruption has meant long term loss of earnings for traders. Some state they are closing their business as a result. Is the laying of cobbles and street furniture really of such great benefit that justifies such a downturn in trade, traffic congestion, expense and general disruption?

[Fangio]

I don't understand what the roadworks are about in total, and cannot believe it is all due to pedestrianisation.
Call me simple but surely if you want to restrict traffic then all you have to do is:
Put up a couple of signs and give pedestrians the priority.
It seems odd that such a simple solution works in other towns yet here in SBS the most expensive method seems to have been adopted.
A street without traffic can be a museum; lifeless and full of shops selling kitsch. All that is needed is a will to change and a bit of discipline.
Total sum I envisage for the entire scheme - about 50,000 quid, once the consultants have been paid.
Or, scrub around the consultants and make it about 20 grand.

[Spinalman]

Fangio, on 14 April 2011 - 15:14 PM, said:

I don't understand what the roadworks are about in total, and cannot believe it is all due to pedestrianisation.
Call me simple but surely if you want to restrict traffic then all you have to do is:
Put up a couple of signs and give pedestrians the priority.
It seems odd that such a simple solution works in other towns yet here in SBS the most expensive method seems to have been adopted.
A street without traffic can be a museum; lifeless and full of shops selling kitsch. All that is needed is a will to change and a bit of discipline.
Total sum I envisage for the entire scheme - about 50,000 quid, once the consultants have been paid.
Or, scrub around the consultants and make it about 20 grand.

Yes I agree. Two bollards at £400 each, and bingo - pedestrian zone. However, you can see the consultants must have been circling - "well to instil pride and civic responsibility the townscape improvement must incorporate the very latest street architecture best practices... old cobbles... laid by local artisan craftsmen (or Polish workers as dictated by the EU tendering process) and set with granite boundary stones to de-lineate the psycho-enforcement of pedestrian / vehicular safe-environ town-spaces. Best practice comes at a price I am afraid - the cobbles have to be shipped in from Spain but the carbon offset is achieved by planting 30 trees. we will have to dig up and scrap the pavement to plant those trees but we understand the Empty Shops Artists will sponsor a tree with their new found founding."

If this whole doo dah is to improve trade... they have miscalculated. Ironic that for 50% of East Street's length there are no shops on one side, so pedestrianisation certainly doesn't help there. Will the stuffed Teddies be allowed back? Or do they represent a huge obstruction?


PS it is costing £600,000!

[Suzanne]

I really do not understand why it has taken so long. When we had our reasonably sized front garden and driveway bricked over it only took about 4 days from start to finish and there were only two guys working on it. East Street is only a short road so maybe someone could possibly explain how they have managed to drag it out for such a long time. They can't even blame it on the weather as that has been good for quite a while now.

[Fangio]

Spinalman, on 14 April 2011 - 16:34 PM, said:

Yes I agree. Two bollards at £400 each, and bingo - pedestrian zone. However, you can see the consultants must have been circling - "well to instil pride and civic responsibility the townscape improvement must incorporate the very latest street architecture best practices... old cobbles... laid by local artisan craftsmen (or Polish workers as dictated by the EU tendering process) and set with granite boundary stones to de-lineate the psycho-enforcement of pedestrian / vehicular safe-environ town-spaces. Best practice comes at a price I am afraid - the cobbles have to be shipped in from Spain but the carbon offset is achieved by planting 30 trees. we will have to dig up and scrap the pavement to plant those trees but we understand the Empty Shops Artists will sponsor a tree with their new found founding."

If this whole doo dah is to improve trade... they have miscalculated. Ironic that for 50% of East Street's length there are no shops on one side, so pedestrianisation certainly doesn't help there. Will the stuffed Teddies be allowed back? Or do they represent a huge obstruction?


PS it is costing £600,000!

An enormous opportunity for free entertainment has been lost.
Bollards, those ones that pull out of the ground, should have been installed, at a relatively low cost.
They, the bollards, are hi-tec with flashing lights etc..
Said bollards also give the local PCSOs (Or in our neighbouring countries real police) something to do. At an appropriate hour they need to raise and lower said bollards. I suspect that our PCSOs (never admitted) are actually doing 'real' police work so will not have the time.
The humour effect clicks in when an unsuspecting driver, generally a local, attempts to drive through said bollards after they are raised; the sound of crunching plastic and twisted metal is awesome. The applause from the people walking/sitting/eating is generally pretty good.
I see no reason as to why this simple method which works so well in neighbouring countries could not be adopted here.
The EU has some excellent ideas we could easily adopt; except for a distinct difference.
Clout a bollard in the EU (well the mainland and real bit) and the authorities, and your insurance company, will say 'You were a t**t for not having seen it'.
In the UK it will involve massive litigation and the subsequent hiring of hundreds of 'consultants'.
Have we been hoist by our own petard?

[PeterW]

Fangio, on 14 April 2011 - 19:27 PM, said:

An enormous opportunity for free entertainment has been lost.
Bollards, those ones that pull out of the ground, should have been installed, at a relatively low cost.
They, the bollards, are hi-tec with flashing lights etc..
Said bollards also give the local PCSOs (Or in our neighbouring countries real police) something to do. At an appropriate hour they need to raise and lower said bollards. I suspect that our PCSOs (never admitted) are actually doing 'real' police work so will not have the time.
The humour effect clicks in when an unsuspecting driver, generally a local, attempts to drive through said bollards after they are raised; the sound of crunching plastic and twisted metal is awesome. The applause from the people walking/sitting/eating is generally pretty good.
I see no reason as to why this simple method which works so well in neighbouring countries could not be adopted here.
The EU has some excellent ideas we could easily adopt; except for a distinct difference.
Clout a bollard in the EU (well the mainland and real bit) and the authorities, and your insurance company, will say 'You were a t**t for not having seen it'.
In the UK it will involve massive litigation and the subsequent hiring of hundreds of 'consultants'.
Have we been hoist by our own petard?

Bollards seem to work in Victoria Road.
As for Bollards and PCSOs. Not sure that would work, although a cartoon would be interesting

[Fangio]

PeterW, on 17 April 2011 - 23:15 PM, said:

Bollards seem to work in Victoria Road.
As for Bollards and PCSOs. Not sure that would work, although a cartoon would be interesting

You have to put a kind of key in the sunken bollard and lift the thing up, at the appropriate time, then push it down again at another.
I've seen it done hundreds of times and generally by the local police.
Something alone the lines of these and suitably strong:

http://www.sureparki...elbollards.html

As I believe it East St will only be closed to vehicles between 10.00 and 16.00hrs. Thus a cheap and effective method could have been used.

[PeterW]

PeterW, on 17 April 2011 - 22:15 PM, said:

Bollards seem to work in Victoria Road.
As for Bollards and PCSOs. Not sure that would work, although a cartoon would be interesting

White Van Man and Bollards:
http://www.newburyto...?articleID=6415

[shorehambeach]

Here a few people being caught out.....

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=i_Cw0QJU8ro

[Fangio]

shorehambeach, on 18 April 2011 - 16:46 PM, said:

Here a few people being caught out.....

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=i_Cw0QJU8ro

Blimey the airbags went off in one of those.
Ah well, you can't help people from themselves

[Fangio]

PeterW, on 18 April 2011 - 09:47 AM, said:

White Van Man and Bollards:
http://www.newburyto...?articleID=6415

No the title is not quite right.

The motorist struck the bollards after following the bus etc....

I don't think you can be 'struck by a bollard'.

[PaulOckenden]

Fangio, on 18 April 2011 - 15:59 PM, said:

I don't think you can be 'struck by a bollard'.

Except on an insurance claim form, perhaps!

P.

[Fangio]

PaulOckenden, on 18 April 2011 - 17:05 PM, said:

Except on an insurance claim form, perhaps!

P.

Perhaps if we adopted the odious mainland principle of people signing a common form, and all signing it, then this wouldn't happen (when there has been some sort of prang).
Meanwhile bollards will continue to jump from nowhere and strike perfectly innocent 'motorists' at every opportunity.

[Spinalman]

I had thought automatic bollards would be a good idea. We have them in Godalming. (how middle England did that sound?). I suggest Shoreham has them at both ends of East Street and have a HD camera system to film people having their 4X4 sumps forcibly removed. Revenues for repaying the £600,000 worth of cobbles could be created by running an extortionate tow truck service for those that crash on them, and from the £250 for each video clip syndicated to "You've been framed". You could also run a webcam subscription service for those people to have 24 hour entertainment on their desktop.

[Fangio]

You must have been to Spain as this is almost exactly what they do there.
There is a distinct difference though; the charges for being a complete and utter pr*t are not extortionate.

[PeterW]

Fangio, on 18 April 2011 - 16:58 PM, said:

You must have been to Spain as this is almost exactly what they do there.
There is a distinct difference though; the charges for being a complete and utter pr*t are not extortionate.

They still try and get through even when there are traffic lights:
http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

[Ferryman]

PeterW, on 18 April 2011 - 23:13 PM, said:

They still try and get through even when there are traffic lights:
http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

AT least we can soon claim to have the most expensive 60 metres of pavement in the UK.

New record set yesterday when I counted 6 workmen watching just 1 doing some drilling for half an hour. Previous record was 5.

[oldbean]

I see that some of the surfacing is now begining to be laid!

[PaulOckenden]

Saw the blokes working on Saturday morning - the new block surface looks bloody excellent - they've made a fantastic job.

P.

[Fangio]

It certainly seems highly technical and a strong specification.
Those channels down the sides? Are they for the gas/water/leccy etc..which would seem sensible; save digging the whole lot up.