The above video was shot over 45 mins on a rainy Saturday 8th Oct at about midday. The traders have asked me to bring this problem up at the Council meeting which I did tonight. The traffic signs at the end of New market street clearly state that the street is closed on Thurs. and Sat. except for access to private car parks. As You can see from the film there are lots of cars and vans just using the street as though it was any normal day. According to the traders this is causing risks to people using the market, and there have been a number of near misses.
So its time enforce this before we have a serious accident, don't you think.
Sgt Johnson, who was at our meeting tonight told us that the police were not sure who should enforce the closure order. It may be the Market manager, traffic wardens or the police themselves, but they didn't seem to know. In fact he thought that we had discussed this at our last meeting two weeks ago, as it was on that agenda, but as I was presenting it, and was on holiday it had been brought forward to this week. He had been trying to find out who should police the closure order but had not been able to discover anything even though he had been looking at it for a fortnight, which seems a little curious.
Anyway it is of course not as easy as it seems at first sight due to lots of legal grey areas, wouldn't you know it. He has suggested that the council, police and other interested parties get together to come up with a plan/solution to what should be an easy problem to solve. Soon I hope.
We can't put a barrier or chain up because of the emergency services needing access, so all we have at the moment is a big plastic yellow bollard that gets moved by anybody that wants to get down New market st and then doesn't put it back. Then once its gone all the traffic just ignores the signs and drives down the street blissfully unaware that they are committing an offence.
We can't put a barrier or chain up because of the emergency services needing access, so all we have at the moment is a big plastic yellow bollard that gets moved by anybody that wants to get down New market st and then doesn't put it back. Then once its gone all the traffic just ignores the signs and drives down the street blissfully unaware that they are committing an offence.
So my solutions are;
1, send the traffic down cross street and into Brogden street like they did when the cobbles were being fixed and reverse the one way system in New market st. and the bit of Market st. from Dodds to the junction of New Market st.
2. Put one of those fancy signs that flash on when you approach New market st. from the county square roundabout that says CLOSED market day. You know like those ones that remind you to slow down at Greenodd and coming into Ulverston from the coast road.
3. Fill the Bollard with water so it can't be moved.
4. A sign that says X number of people have been fined £60 for using this street when it is closed. DON'T DO IT.
If You've got any novel ideas of how to solve this problem please feel free to comment here, Thank you.
I will take them to the meeting we're going to be having soon with the police.
