Wisbech Market Place new traffic management
Council to spend nearly £2,000 on re-drawing parking bays on Wisbech Market Place
Elaine King
Thursday, September 27, 2012
10:59 AM
A WISBECH town councillor has dubbed the new Market Place layout a “mish mash” after discovering that markings for new parking bays are being removed and redrawn.
Wisbech Market Place traffic managementCouncillor Dave Patrick has complained that nearly £2,000 is being spent on the new white lines, and he has several other concerns about the new traffic management scheme that comes into force on October 1.
“I am very concerned about the parking bays, we are having to spend money on something we should have got right in the first place,” he said.
“We should be getting things right, not costing the rate payers more money. The whole new layout has not been properly thought through.”
Market trader Lee Martin says he was “absolutely staggered” to discover the white lines are to be redrawn. “I hear that the town clerk was told two hours bfore the work was carried out that they should be at an angle, but he said he liked them the way they were; so more expense for the people of Wisbech.”
Wisbech Market Place new traffic managementThe town council took over management of the Market Place last summer, and it will be responsible for ensuring that drivers comply with various new traffic restrictions.
Cllr Patrick - who is chairman of Wisbech and District Hackney Carriage Drivers’ Association - is concerned that the High Street is open to two-way traffic, when parking bays restrict the width of the carriageway. He also says that cars have been colliding with new bollards, as they arrive on the Market Place from Hill Street.
“Surely it would be common sense to make the High Street one way, with traffic only entering towards the Market Place and exiting out past United News,” he said.
Regarding the Market Place junction with Hill Street, Cllr Patrick said: “I have been advised that there have been at least seven incidents regarding collisions between vehicles and the bollards, as drivers not understanding the new layout have tried to turn left.”
Wisbech Market Place new traffic managementDeputy town clerk Susanah Farmer has told Cllr Patrick that the original parking bays were marked, advised by the white lining company according to “information at the time.” But the bays are now being re-aligned with county council installed loading bays, to ease traffic flow.
The cost of the new white lines, around £1,800, has come from the funds given to the town council to put the traffic scheme into place.
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4 comments
daveb123 - I think the Norfolk and Good comments are spot on, as there appears to be little enforcement of anything in the town, whether by the Police or Antonella else in authority. I was there today and there were cars parked all over the place. Also present were many of the usual threatening-looking suspects with their cans of beer swaggering round the streets glaring at passers-by.
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Citizen of EUSSR
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
What a farce. The Norfolk and Good comments don't really help do they, blame the police for everything rather than the stupid motorist (God I can't wait for petrol to run out- too many cars on the road). Most decent councils have decriminalised their parking and have taken the enforcement role of (the overstretched) police, and then they employ wardens to go out and hammer the idiot motorists who ignore parking laws. Enforcement is a key, but only when the scheme of parking wardens is in place. The idiot councillors have delayed the cromwell road development as they apparently want to make sure all the units are filled first. They are no doubt protecting the town centre shoddy shops (and their mates who run them). The same shoddy shops that want cars all over the place, parked where they want, and ignore any laws. The same shop owners who are so dense they don't actually realise that shoppers go elsewhere as they like the idea of proper pedestrianisation, not this Fenland farce. The issues with the market place having been going on for years, with weekend politicians putting in their two pence worth, it has always been doomed to fail. I suppose we have to blame the community for this as a proportion of them keep voting in these comedians
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daveb123
Monday, October 1, 2012
It's really pointless marking out parking bays anyway, because everyone ignores them and there's no enforcement by the police... as with most things in the town, it's just a free-for-all! The shop staff seem to be the worst offenders - I regularly see a black Range Rover parked all day in restricted areas and nobody does a thing about it.
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Norfolk and Good
Friday, September 28, 2012
Oh Come on! if the Parking bays where introduced properly in the first place! the problem is when the the Fire Brigade say it's a Health and safety issue we have to listen for obvious reasons. Why the brigade was not consulted before the last set of paint was drawn is mind boggling ! what councillor is costing Fenland citizens this money without thinking? A total shambles if they cant even paint white lines. WTF???
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Monica Radulescu
Friday, September 28, 2012