Would the Brigg town centre pedestrian area be safer and more pleasant for shoppers if a more stringent and rigorously "policed" restriction was introduced to stop vehicles driving through at core times on the busiest days?
Many complaints are voiced about the number of cars, vans and lorries encountered in the pedestrian zone by shoppers who often need to get out of the way to let vehicles squeeze past.
Some vehicles are making legitimate deliveries to business premises, a number of which do not enjoy the benefit of rear access. But Brigg Town Council is sufficiently concerned to debate the issue and “have a view to suggest“ restrictions could be considered.
The North Lincolnshire authority, which oversees highways and town centres and enforces traffic management measures, would need to make the final decision, if asked to do so.
During the town council discussions this week it was suggested no vehicles between 10am and 2pm on market days would be a step in the right direction. 10am to 4pm was also mentioned.
Town councillors were being asked to consider whether the Traffic Regulation Order is “sufficiently robust to protect pedestrians in the pedestrianised area.”
Coun Julian Kidd gave an example of a market day when vans had been pushing through crowds of people, resulting in complaints by shoppers and creating a situation he considered to be extremely dangerous.
Coun Jenny Bell pointed out that some businesses could not choose when deliveries were made to their shops, while Coun Chris Dyson highlighted the need for vehicular access to be maintained to some residential premises within the zone.
Coun Mel Oades won widespread agreement when he suggested Brigg businesses needed to be consulted first, to gauge their responses.
Many of the vehicles we encounter in the pedestrian area, of course, are not commercial, but belong to lazy folk taking short-cuts, including cashpoint-users.
At tea-time on Tuesday night this week I parked up near Lidl and walked through the Market Place on my way to The Loft, in Wrawby Street, for the Business Partnership meeting. It may have been a very quiet January night in the middle of the week, but THREE vehicles were observed in the town centre. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: All this goes on within full view of the CCTV cameras. Yet how many prosecutions do we hear about?
In many town centres, deliveries to commercial premises must be undertaken during specific hours of the day, restrictions being in place to keep the pedestrian areas traffic-free during shop opening hours. In some places there are bollards that are raised and lowered at certain times to allow, or restrict, vehicular access.
Many of us would be sorry to see that introduced in Brigg - for the reasons stated by Coun Jenny Bell. Most of our traders are small, independent and unable to dictate to head office when deliveries need to be made. What's required is a great British compromise, resulting in fewer vehicles about at the busiest times. Traders can help achieve this, but we also need a clampdown from North Lincolnshire Council on "Joe Public" visiting cashpoints in full view of the CCTV cameras.
The council needs to issue monthly updates outlining how many motorists have been fined and how much they had to fork out. This information should be issued to websites like Brigg Blog, Brigg People, Brigg Life, www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk and the council's own www.northlincs.gov.uk - plus the printed Press like Brigg Matters, the Scunthorpe Telegraph and the Market Rasen Mail.
Once word gets round that the council "means business" and is clamping down, motorists will soon start to comply.
We took the above picture on a Sunday afternoon, just as it was starting to get dark, when all Brigg town centre shops were shut. We trust the driver had acceptable cause to be in the pedestrian area.
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Why has Brigg been dilly-dallying around this issue for so long?
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a system that reflects the needs of shoppers, retailers and market stall holders - but no regime is ever going to utopia.
At the moment, the council seems to be in an insidious position of not wanting to offend anyone by making things a little more regimented , but in doing so, it ends up offending all.
Everyone appears to treading on egg-shells. Despite the many complaints from shoppers, it appears that nothing can be done because certain retailers needs delivery access, the disabled drivers need assess to ATM machines and market traders may need to convenience of parking their vehicles on the Market Place on market days.
Other communities with similar pedestrianised areas don't seem to have the same compounded problem that Brigg seems to invite onto itself.
Such towns have devised legitimate times when their zone is open for access for delivery vehicles; they have created 'loading bays' on the periphery of the zone to allow deliveries to be made when the pedestrian zone is closed.
The argument that shops will suffer because delivery firms will be reluctant to make deliveries is very fragile. In this day and age, delivery firms are very well aware of the parking and delivery restrictions imposed in town centres and have quite successfully adapted to time and/or loading restrictions.
Allocate a designated vehicle parking zone for market traders.
It may mean that banks and similar services need to examine their opening hours to allow those, for example, disabled drivers, who need direct access, the opportunity to do their business before/after the day's vehicular closure times.
Can we please get to grips with this problem...it's not rocket science...