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.
Colin,
ReplyDeleteGlad you're raising this issue in UTC as well as the police.
This is an issue like many others where I believe the general public can take effective action - my top project is to document on my camera and then support the police as they prosecute any one I see driving a vehicle while on a mobile phone. I've had three near misses and caught one so far. ( The latest, a fortnight ago, was a guy driving a small white van with PPS written in large letters: he was stack in traffic beside me near the Coro on his phone, I was getting out of my car to challenge him when the lights changed; I followed him trying to get close enough to get his number until the open road of the A590 just past Booths. This time he got away.)
I've just returned from a country where it is in the culture to get everyone to obey the law. They are what I call assertive: if someone does something they don't like they tell them, if someone asks for help, they they help if it's genuine. As everyone does this as second nature then it's no big deal to tell someone you don't like what they're doing.
With a culture like this the police act only as back up.
So in the New Market situation you highlight we could all stand in front of cars and make them stop and then ask them what they think they are doing.
For my part I have moved back notices and bollards so that it's clear that cars are not allowed to drive down this street on Market days.
Please Colin start setting the example of being assertive and telling people off. The police need only intervene when the situation gets more aggressive which in my experience it never does: the worse that happens is you get some swearing and are told to "fuck off and mind your own business".
If we all were more assertive, many things would improve dramatically.
This is the direction, I believe, we have to go in times of financial hardship. We, the public need to take charge.
How about Sgt Johnston organising some courses in public assertive behaviour?
Love the video.
ReplyDeleteYour light touch gets the message across beautifully.
I get far too serious - as though it's a matter of life and death. . . . .