Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Roadworks update....
A little birdie has told Tonbridgeblog that the High Street won't now be fully "regenerated" until at least the end of May. So I calculate that it'll be seven, perhaps even eight months since they started by the time the diggers finally go away. Is this acceptable? What can we do about it? Will the Highways authorities, and the borough council be coughing up to compensate the shop keepers who've been effected by this shambles? Yeah, good luck with that one! You can't help thinking that, if this had been a busy street in London, they'd have got the job done inside a week or two by employing an army of road workers and working around the clock....
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13 comments:
Yesterday I counted 13 workers on site but presumably there are at least that number of managers at the contractors HQ and another shed load at KCC looking after the project. Civil engineering project normal have overrun penalties but since the only people to suffer in this case are the businesses like yours and the people stuck in traffic queues I don't think this will apply .
At least on the bright side when its all finished a lot more shoppers will come and spend cash in shops like yours and you can look forward to bumper profits.
It cant just be the council that thinks this with all those new places to eat opening up. The one near you spent £600k on doing their place up.
There's more to come from KCC when they start on the £500k changes to the front of the railway station.
Actually the effect on Mr. Books, being at the north end of town away from the works, seems to have been only very slight. I do feel for some of the businesses whose doors have been made almost inaccessible for days at a time though. Strikes me as a little odd that a restaurant, I assume that you're referring to the new Turkish one, can spend that amount of money when the Station is spending less than that. Something might not be quite right there with calculations/information somewhere me thinks....
The Sevenoaks Chonicle reported the owners as saying £600k was spent.
They budgeted for 3500 customers per week. A bit optimistic I think But If they make it at even £5 profit per head thats £9 millions a year.
The new Turkish restaurant was packed, when we ate there on Easter Monday. The food was first class as well.
On the vexed subject of the roadworks, I can’t help thinking a private contractor would have finished the work a lot quicker. The trouble with KCC’s Direct Works outfit is they aren’t accountable to anyone. Someone seriously under-estimated the timescale for this project though, and unlike in the real world, that person, or persons, won’t find themselves penalised in any way.
The least the council can do, by way of recompense, is to offer free parking in all their town-centre car parks for an extended period (say several Saturdays on the trot). As well as compensating Tonbridge residents, and traders, for the seven to eight months of upheaval caused by the works, it would be good for the local economy by attracting extra trade into the town.
Cant see TMBC giving free parking even for a short time when they have just taen away free parking from West Malling High street. How they complained in West Malling that it wasn't fair that £2.7 millions of tax payers money was being spent tin Tonbridge. They have short memories: the centre of West Malling was blocked paved at a considerable cost a few years back and not just the pavements.
But the pressure will be on TMBC to ensure that people are still willing to pay to park but I guess with all those new apartment in the town centre many shoppers will be on foot.
If you want free parking the planning proposals for the B&Q site will suit you well. And only yesterday (7/4) planning permission for the Homebase site was granted for 8am to 10pm trading and 6am deliveries as was required by Aldi. Permission to sell food and sports goods as required for another potential retailer was granted in November so it looks like it could be Aldi for Tonbridge quite soon.
free parking at b and q !!!!!!
be careful anpr cameras police a strict two hour limit
as i know to my £45 cost
beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe those large Parking Penalty signs were a clue that you would be fined Anon 5.32.
how is it possible to spend more than 2 hours in the B&Q complex?...
Anyway, looks like building works on halfords/m&s food is underway now. Just B&Q to close up and I guess that'll start? Homebase still seeing no action though (has anything been confirmed there yet?) along with the proposed MacDonalds...
As for the hightstreet - maybe it'll look 'worth it' once the road surfacing is complete this week but I am really struggling to see the benefit of the money spent so far - wider pavements, granted, but dangerous 'loading bays' and highstreet coming to a standstill when buses stop...
On a plus point, good to see the north end of the high street going from strength to strength with the opening of the new Thai place to sit alongside the Turkish Restaurant, Bakehouse, Fire Station and, of course, Mr Books...
Homebase site. The owners now have all the planning permissions require to split the site into smaller units, convert the garden centre area into car parking, to sell food in one of the units, pet food and sports goods in the others. Also opening hours extended to those required by Aldi. So if Aldi won't to come and if the rent is not a stumbling block then Aldi it is.
Looks like the 30 min or more journey times from north Tonbridge to the town are here for a few weeks and the queues are still there at 9.30am. And some folk want the High Street to be traffic free in both directions!
Builders say they sold the flats now I suppose.
So this week (and last) driving into town has become a nightmare. And what do the council do to encourage shoppers and visitors?, they put up car parking charges and not only that the free parking on a Saturday afternoon that was intended for those using the sports facilities in the Lower Castle park has been removed.
Dont hold your breath but the tonbridgehighstreet web site now states
"It is anticipated that Medway Wharf Road will be reopened on the evening of 13th May shortly followed by the removal of all traffic management early the following week commencing 16th May." Just in time for the foodand drink festival.
Anonymous April 27th. It's a private car park, so they can't fine you. All they can do is invoice your car, which is, of course a nonsense.It's a charge, not a fine.
They put them in convincing black and yellow striped baggies and stick them to your side window, in the hope that gullible people like your Anonymous brother will cough up 45 quid. What he should have done was simply peeled it off, and chucked it in the nearest bin.
Those so- called "fines" are not worth the paper they're written on. They need to invoice a person not a car: they would have to prove in court who was driving the car at the time it was parked, and that's the reason privately run car parking firms never take anyone to court. They'll fork out a couple of pounds to the good old DVLA, who'll happily flog off your details to any old crooked parking firm. You'll get threatening letters. My advise would be strictly No Contact and Ignore.
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