vote to support St Mary street Pedestranisation!!!

Well have you ever heard of a scheme to pedestranise not being successful? However the echo has a question- has st mary st pedestranisation been a sucess? YES

Give us a chance ....hardly finished yet!

ring to say YES 08716 930013
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Traffic trial’s cost is £580k – so far

Dec 10 2007 by Phillip Nifield, South Wales Echo

TAX-PAYERS have forked out almost £600,000 on the controversial trial traffic shake-up in Cardiff’s St Mary Street, it has been revealed.

Figures released by Cardiff council show that an initial £400,000 was initially spent on changes which led to the banning of private vehicles from the street in August.

Since October another £180,000 has been forked out to alter the two-way traffic system, which has included removing a concrete barrier in part of the street and giving more room to pedestrians.

If the part-pedestrian scheme is made permanent, the final £3.25m bill to transform the environment of the street will come from Welsh Assembly Government and council funds.

This will include putting trees, shrubs and seating in the street and extending pavements permanently, opening the way for street cafes.

The details of the bill were released just three days before Councillor Elgan Morgan, the Liberal Democrats’ executive member for transport, faces a no confidence motion from Labour over the handling of his portfolio, including the St Mary Street experiment.

Cardiff’s council executive is to be given a detailed report early in January on the St Mary Street scheme. This will include recommendations on whether to open the lower end of the street to restore the link between the city centre and Cardiff Bay.

John Adams, of Ashtons fishmonger’s in Cardiff Market, attacked the cost, declaring: “We all assumed that the experiment was going to be a simple low-cost one. The figure of £580,000 is nothing more than gross extravagance of ratepayers’ money.”

John Munton, deputy chairman of Cardiff East Neighbourhood Watch, said he was concerned about the amount of traffic congestion on the reduced lanes.

“My concern is that in the event of an emergency it could be difficult for an ambulance to get through St Mary Street.”

But support for the scheme came from Julie Eynon, of Canton, who said: “I love the changes in St Mary Street. There has been a big improvement in the street for pedestrians and it is easier to cross the road.”

Cardiff council said much of the money spent so far would not be abortive whether the scheme was made permanent or not. Much of the work, such as road signs, would be recycled.

A council spokeswoman added: “The St Mary Street and High Street improvement works are experimental and have required the council to seek the views of the public and key stakeholders on the various options for moving forward. Often these differ and as a result different areas of the scheme are altered as an experiment, to see if such changes could become features if the permanent scheme goes ahead.”

phillip.nifield@mediawales.co.uk

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http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/2007/12/10/traffic-trial-s-cost-is-580k-so-far-91466-20229436/

Lib Dems promise to get Wales moving

"GET WALES MOVING!" Lib Dems
I have asked the Lib Dems what they will do about inconsiderate parking.

I wrote 'When will you decriminalise parking and stop parking on double yellow lines and on the pavement.

Please look at my albums of pics - Whitchurch Village has always got cars parked on double yellow lines stopping the bus pulling in. Sophie Howe -New Labour -was campaigning outside Iceland in Whitchurch on Sat and told me 'It is a police matter' & she had 'rung the police several times about the problem,' so in the 7/8 years she has been a councillor in Whitchurch she couldn't do a thing about it! Will the Lim Dems put an end to this and parking on the pavement?

JOIN Living Streets if you agree that we should:

Create communities free from fear of traffic
Excess traffic speed kills. Especially at risk are the vulnerable - pedestrians, cyclists, children and elderly. But excess speed also kills the life of our streets as fear of accidents means children are kept indoors, people are less likely to walk to local amenities and community interaction is inhibited. We want:
Comprehensive speed management plans for all of our cities, towns and villages
20mph speed limits on all the community streets where we live, shop, work and play

Speed control through widespread traffic calming and enforcement techniques

Stop pavement parking
Vehicle parking on pavements, at pedestrian crossing points and alongside dropped kerbs is on the increase. This poses a major barrier to walking, particularly for those with mobility difficulties. In London pavement parking has been banned and decriminalised so that local authorities rather than police can enforce the ban.

We want:
The Welsh Assembly to give councils effective powers against pavement parking and anti-social parking Councils to decriminalise procedures and introduce fines for bad parking

Design streets for all
For decades roads have been designed predominantly for traffic, ignoring the needs of walkers even where there are more people travelling on foot than in vehicles. Streets and public spaces should be more than traffic corridors, for instance as playgrounds, meeting places and markets.

We want:
More space for walking and cycling, less for cars and lorries
Streets classified and redesigned by their use as play, residential, mixed or distributory

Give walking a higher profile

Walking is a vital ingredient of health and social inclusion as well as a key component in environmental and transport policies. The contribution walking makes to our communities must be recognised by the Welsh Assembly and local authorities.

We want:
A joined-up national policy framework for walking in Wales
A major role for walking and sustainable travel in national, regional and local transport policy

Councils to produce Walking Strategies linked to Health Improvement Programmes like
Walking Works Wales is a new Living Streets initiative, funded by Health Challenge Wales

Upgrade walking networks
Local pedestrian networks are often in a poor state after decades of neglect, leaving inadequate footway widths, safety hazards, unnecessary obstacles to movement and visual clutter. Basic standards of accessibility for disabled users, as expected to follow from the Disability Discrimination Act, are not being met.

We want:
Community Street Audits of key walking routes to schools, community facilities and public transport

Resourced improvement programmes for upgrading footpaths and public space

Better walking access in new developments

Shops and essential services need to be within a 15 minute walk of homes to be truly accessible on foot. We want new developments to achieve a mix of housing with shops and essential services nearby to minimise the need to travel. New areas and planning proposals should be designed to ensure walkability, with direct, attractive and safe path networks to key local facilities.

We want: Walkability testing for all new development proposals, by local authorities at the planning application stage.

The Welsh Assembly Government to highlight the needs of pedestrians to developers, planners and engineers through guidance, training and awareness raising

Promote walking
Walking is easy, cheap, and often social. We need to encourage people to walk as part of their daily lives.

We want:
The Welsh assembly Government to continue to strongly promote the advantages of walking for health, transport and the environment by supporting more walking initiatives

Local authorities and community plan partners to adopt walking as a key measure of the success of Community Plans and Joint Health Improvement programmes

A series of sustainable travel towns introduced across SWales to test approaches to active travel, with walking and walkability as key components of the approach

Make public transport accessible
Walking is an essential part of public transport trips but often pedestrian routes to bus stops are inaccessible, particularly for those whose mobility is impaired. The quality of pedestrian access in and around many rail and bus stations is also poor. Under the Disability Discrimination Act it is unacceptable for this to continue. We believe a better pedestrian environment will encourage more walking and public transport use, helping to ease congestion and improving health.

We want:
Walkability Audits of all bus and rail stations and main routes to them