WHAT'S THE POINT?

Wish I'd had a camera with me this morning to show Blog visitors the view along Wrawby Street and the Market Place. So many vehicles were there that some were having to move to let others get past. And all that in what's supposed to be a pedestrian area, free of cars, vans and lorries. Something brought in to make Brigg a more pleasant place to shop.
This column has banged on many times about the authorities' continuing unwillingness to take any decisive action against drivers who contravene the regulations.
Yes, driving into a pedestrian area is not a life-threatening crime, nor is it the most serious on the statute book. But surely if it's an offence in law, it's an offence. Simple as that. And someone ought to be doing something about it. We can't pick and choose which laws we obey and which are enforced, can we?
The CCTV cameras - on their lofty perches in Wrawby Street and the Market Place - have a good view (leafy trees permitting!) of all this going on. So let's get someone in authority viewing the footage regularly, noting the numberplates and setting the wheels in motion so prosecutions can be processed.
This morning a van, having made a delivery in the Market Place, didn't exit the pedestrian area via Cary Lane, or go over the County Bridge, but, instead, threaded its way down Wrawby Street, past an estate car parked outside a shop, two vans near Cooplands and a council truck at the side of a flowertub, before joining the road near Wallhead's.
Meanwhile, back in the Market Place, a removal van was outside the front of North Lincolnshire Council's Angel office suite. Now, as far as I know, there's a perfectly good car park at the back of these premises. So why not park up there and make the required pick-up?
Able-bodied drivers go into the pedestrian area to visit cashpoints because they are too lazy to walk. Simple as that. And the more people who are seen to be getting away with it, the more others are encouraged to follow their example.
Then there's the question of businesses. Unless I've misunderstood things, it's OK for vehicles to go in there to deliver to premises as long as there's no rear access available (those on most of one side of Wrawby Street), or the loads are bulky.
Turning the clock back more than 25 years to when Wrawby Street was on the A18 and thousands of cars and lorries rumbled past each day, our efficient traffic wardens used to be a frequent sight. We used to watch them from the upstairs office of the Lincolnshire Times at No. 57. Cheeky drivers who tried to park up for a minute or two while they nipped into Bowen's shop for a loaf or a pasty, ran the real risk of being taken to task by the 'yellow peril'.
Where are the traffic wardens, PCSOs and neighbourhood beat officers today? Shouldn't they be checking, as often as possible, whether all these cars, vans and lorries have valid reasons to be there?
They shouldn't be needed, or course. People should obey the signs marking out the pedestrian area.
Next time I'm in conversation with Insp Brett Rutty - our likeable head of rural policing - the issue will be raised. Unfortunately, Brett only has a very small team of officers at his disposal to police the entire rural area from Goxhill to Haxey.
Earlier, reference was made to the early 1980s. Well, back then, Brigg was a policing sub-division in its own right (also covering Barton, but not the Isle of Axholme). It was headed by a Chief Inspector, and there were Inspectors based at both Brigg and Barton, plus a team of Sergeants and PCs.
Today there's a very uneven, and some might well say unfair, allocation of police in favour of Scunthorpe at the expense of the rural area which surrounds it, certainly when your compare the relative populations.
Go to Scunthorpe town centre/Precinct/Foundry Shopping Centre and you see plenty of police walking the streets (which is a good thing) and hardly any delivery vehicles (also a good thing). Yet Scunthorpe town centre is a massive area, compared with our own Wrawby Street and the Market Place.