In the press release about the decision made today to remove the pedestrian-friendly active travel scheme, it was encouraging to read,
Would this expansion onto the street space not have enhanced the town's appeal? We shall never know.
'We wish to reassure residents that the decision to end the temporary Covid-19 active travel scheme early will have no impact on [the duty to work develop & promote active travel] and the Council will work with residents, businesses and local members'
and
'We support the aspirations of this scheme'
These warnings of work ahead appeared on Monday February 1st...
It was nevertheless a decision that came after such a short time. There had hardly been any chance to see how the scheme would have worked. It was only in for three months, during which time we had been in lockdown twice, for a total of 75 out of 103 days, to date (i.e. from from October 23rd to November 9th and again from December 19th onwards).
It surely would've been far better to have let it run longer, till the end of the summer, perhaps, to get a more appropriate feel for how it could benefit walkers. Part of the plan was to enable businesses to spill out onto enhanced pedestrian space. This would be inappropriate during winter and in any case, we're in lockdown.
... but at that stage no decision had been made. They came down on Tuesday. The decision was taken on Thursday
Would this expansion onto the street space not have enhanced the town's appeal? We shall never know.
Where this leaves the Market Town of the Future's plans for greater pedestrian priority on the Square, who knows. It's probably set this back 10 years.