Town’s gridlock chaos came as no surprise
Monday 1st March 2010, 7:28AM GMT.
Queues of cars outside the new Tesco store in Newtown.
What do you get if you mix new traffic lights in Newtown with an unfinished computer system? asks Lembit Opik MP. Gridlock. That’s exactly what happened last week when the power was turned on for the “new improved” traffic management system in the town, in parallel with the opening of the new Tesco.
Within minutes the traffic was queueing and everyone was late for everything.
None of this surprised the locals. Those who actually live in and know Newtown had predicted trouble from the beginning. Unfortunately, the people responsible for the changes were less informed and genuinely seemed to have been taken unawares.
Naturally, there’s been quite a lot of finger pointing, and the council has been a little unhappy at being made the scapegoat in the situation. It may have a slight point because my investigations suggest the trouble was caused by the absence of certain equipment in the workings of the lights.
That could mean Tesco hadn’t delivered the traffic solution they were obliged to before the store opened.
Nevertheless, you didn’t have to be a road management genius to figure out that replacing a perfectly operational roundabout with annoying lights was going to make things worse. Nobody can seriously pretend that the series of lights on the main through road in Newtown is speeding things up. Certainly, it’s extreme overkill to have the current set up which serves to patronise and delay motorists in equal measure.
At some point, we’re going to start taking a more mature attitude towards drivers. For now, the misery continues, and someone needs to take responsibility for yet another backward step in the mobility of the county.
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Here’s a novel idea for you. Why not have a bypass! If you start planning it now it should be ready for opening in about 40 years!
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Traffic lights don’t work as well as traffic islands for the purpose of traffic flow, we all know that and you only have to go to Telford or Emestry Island in Shrewsbury to find that out, HOWEVER traffic light sales seem to be big business now ,just like double glazing was a few decades ago and we should be asking who’s being conned by these slick “salesmen”?
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I suggest we all wait to see if the ‘SCOOT’ camera system will help, I believe they are installing it at the moment.
Mind you I dont see how it will help with the epic traffic delays awaiting us when the wind farm construction traffic starts to travel through the area. I have heard of two wind farms that want to use the junction for their abnormal loads and then there are the thousands of HGV’s that also have to get to site, which route will they be taking? Then of course there are the other 10+ wind farms for Mid Wales. Will the by-pass be built in time for them? Where will the money come from? Perhaps we could close the remaining high schools in the area and employ the children to help build the roads.
We only have a couple of trunk roads and WE NEED THEM TO BE EFFICIENT and AVAILABLE for the public and business to use.
Tesco’s, wind farms and any other big projects are inappropriate for Mid Wales because the road network cant cope with what it presently has to carry, encouraging more traffic to the area without suitable road improvements is crazy. Thank you Powys County Council for sticking up for all of us, I only wish you didnt have to report to Welsh Assembly who dont seem to know their bottoms from their elbows!
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Wait till the wind farm traffic starts to travel through Newtown. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Your too late to complain about Tesco’s – the planning process is over but there is still time to find out exactly how Welsh Assembly plan to do to build 15+ wind farms in Mid Wales, how they plan to get the 4,000 abnormal loads and 100,000 HGV’s along our road network. Much of this lot is headed for Newtown and surrounding roads.
Get a bike!
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Lets wait and see if the linked traffic lights help? Mind you this is all light amusement compared to the problems that moving Welsh Assembly proposed wind farm components through the junction will cause. The usual lack of thought from the Ministers in Cardiff is very likely to mean that we will pay dearly with epic traffic queues.
Why not write to your local AM to ask who is going to make sure that the Mid Wales road network and economy doesn’t suffer at the hands of the developers and WAG. Surely the extra congestion from Tesco’s is proof enough that developers only do the minimum needed to make a profit.
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dreamondevelopers seems to think that ‘wait and see’ is good enough. It isn’t of course. It was quite obvious to anyone who has used this road for the past 20 years or so that Tesco was going to create the traffic disaster we have now. Waiting any longer won’t help. One of two solutions is needed: either fine Tesco heavily for causing unnecessary obstruction to the highway, or build the by-pass NOW.
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