Bid to clear town street of traffic
Wednesday 11th March 2009, 10:50AM GMT.
A campaign has been launched to transform Bridgnorth’s High Street into a pedestrian-only area amid trials of a new one-way system in the town.
Councillor Brian Jones is calling for High Street to become pedestrianised firstly on a Saturday – the town’s market day – before being made a permanent feature.
Councillor Jones said that now the town’s relief road was open and Whitburn Street was going to be being tested as a one-way system as of this weekend, pedestrianising the High Street was an option.
He added: “I’m trying to get it through before May, it’s something I wanted to do as mayor. Now we’ve got the relief road open we can start talking to people about doing a trial run.
“Whitburn Street will be closed at the weekend to make it one-way.
“Buses will now start using the relief road and the footpaths in Whitburn Street will be widened.
“Nothing has been finalised yet on pedestrianising the High Street, we’re still talking about it, but hopefully we’ll get a trial run in the not to distant future.
“In the past it’s been that we had nowhere else to send the traffic, but possibly now with the relief road we’ll be able to do it. I want to trial it first for 12 months and see how it works and then we could perhaps extend it.”
Martin Allard, Shropshire County Council’s head of traffic and safety, said: “We have no current proposals to pedestrianise High Street.
“We will be monitoring how traffic flows in the area as a result of the opening of the relief road and Whitburn Street being one-way.”
He said an enhancement scheme was due to go to consultation, but it did not include pedestrianisation.
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Oh come on ..
Can we PLEASE PLEASE just LEAVE things alone!
We’ve got the relief road in place, and now we want to kill off the rest of what’s left in the town.
I remember when I came to bridgnorth in 1973 (yes – I’ve been here 36 years !!!) that the town was a bustlng, interesting place, full of people, traffic, excellent shops -many of which have long gone – who rememers Belchers, William Williams , Burtons, Liptons, and many more – they’ve all gone, and what’s left?
Why is it that there is this incessant drive to push “traffic” out of town – surely THAT’S what brings in trade – and by golly the shops need that right now – not have it pushed away!!!
If you don’t actually WANT to go right into town, you don’t have to – but on the other hand – if you do, then a bit of inconvenience with the quirky road system in Bridgnorth all adds to the experience, and is part of the character of the town, just like it was in the days of the horse and cart. (and we didn’t “ban” that -so what’s the difference?)
(anyone remember two way traffic ROUND the OUTSIDE of the town hall on a Saturday morning? and we still got on ok !)
So I say again – LEAVE IT ALONE !
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Is this for real? Don’t you know one of the reasons why Bridgnorth High Street and it’s shops are so popular?
People like to park, shop, eat, tour and drink.
I can just imagine someone lugging a 48 inch plasma from Foxalls down to the Smithfield carpark!! Same goes for any other items of heavy shopping(some weekly)
Have you given any thought as the where people will park? And if your not too active? bad luck.
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Is this for real? Don’t you know one of the reasons why Bridgnorth High Street and it’s shops are so popular?
People like to park, shop, eat, tour and drink.
I can just imagine someone lugging a 48 inch plasma from Foxalls down to the Smithfield carpark!! Same goes for any other items of heavy shopping(some weekly)
Have you given any thought as the where people will park? And if your not too active? bad luck.
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Bridgnorth high street offers around 50 short term parking spaces close to the shops. They are the most useful spaces, and rarely empty. Remove them, and you will remove many pedestrians too, as they will not pay to park in car parks further out when they just want to hop into a shop to grab something quick. Remove the pedestrians and there will be little point in pedestrianisation !
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