OneGuyFromBarlick

Posted: **10 Oct 2013, 11:24**

David Whipp wrote:At the town council meeting last night, the proposal by Conservative councillors to do away with parking restrictions in Barnoldswick on some days of the week.

There may be a populist allure to returning to a 'golden age' of motoring (when a small proportion of the population owned cars).

There may be benefit in experimenting with 'rules free' spaces, where motorists can leave their cars wherever they want.

But do we really want such a free for all in the centre of Barnoldswick?

For my part, I think it is utter foolishness.

We have the benefit of (free) kerbside parking on as much of the town centre roads as can take it. By and large, this is limited to a couple of hours (2 hours, rather than 1/2 an hour to allow enough time for a hair do...). Limiting the length of time for kerbside parking means that these spaces turn over many times a day. For most of the time, it's possible to drive into the town centre and pull into a kerbside space to pop into a shop for a few minutes, or get close to a shop for loading. Without restrictions, increasing numbers of these spaces would be taken up by people parking for longer periods (all day?), leading to a drastic reduction in the number of available kerbside spaces for shoppers.

Over the years, we have fought to keep double yellow lines to an absolute minimum. Where they have been put down are the locations necessary to give traffic enough space to move and essential sight lines for safety. Some of these double lined stretches are used daily for trucks to pull up who are delivering to local shops. If these lengths of street are taken up by people leaving their cars there (because restrictions would be removed under the Conservative proposal) where would the trucks unload? Stop in the middle of the street (blocking everything up for 20 minutes or more?); Pull up hundreds of yards away and carry tonnes of stuff to their destination? Do their deliveries in the middle of the night? (I guess shopkeepers would welcome the extra hours?)

We have a reasonable number of spaces in Barnoldswick for disabled drivers. Take away the restrictions, and there'd no doubt be enough selfish able-bodied motorists to fill the spaces.

And what about the pedestrians, or those in wheelchairs, or mobility scooters or pushing prams who depend on dropped kerbs to get around town? Take away the restrictions, would even more of these crossing points be indiscriminately parked across by unthinking motorists?

Barnoldswick should be singing from the rooftops about the availability of free parking in the town - plenty of spaces in off street car parks located right next to the town centre and kerbside spaces other towns would kill for.

Instead, we've got some councillors (including one who represents Colne) broadcasting to the world that there are BIG problems with parking in Barnoldswick. What an utterly false picture of the town. Why are they running the town down like this? What do they think they are doing putting folk off visiting in this way?

(When I began saying some of this at the council meeting last night, the Conservative councillors trounced out without hearing all my reasoning about why their actions were foolish. What's the point of being a councillor if you're not prepared to debate issues?)

I totally agree with your thinking, the availability of parking in Barnoldswick is currently very good. There is one car park (Rainhall Rd) that appears to get little use though; is it visible enough to visitors? My only concern is that as the popularity of the market grows will there be enough parking? I don't have the benefit of off street parking so would be a bit put out if I was unable to park near my house because of "visitor parking". I'm fully aware that no one has a right to park on the public highway but it's nice to be able to park outside your own house.

Posted: **10 Oct 2013, 12:03**

Big Kev wrote:the availability of parking in Barnoldswick is currently very good. There is one car park (Rainhall Rd) that appears to get little use though; is it visible enough to visitors?

One suggestion to highlight the Rainhall Road car park to visitors is temporary signage pointing the way when there's market or events (though there are some big signs already on the main road).

We are also going to have a new town centre car park map (hardcopy, info boards and websites etc) when the improvement works are complete at Walmsgate car park (which is being brought under town centre car parks management). The Walmsgate car park can provide a useful number of spaces at that end of Church Street; surfacing work is being carried out any time now and this week we agreed to find a little bit more money so we can get the car park lit.

A few additional spaces were created on the Wellhouse Road car park when we moved the recycling skips up to Rainhall Road.

Posted: **10 Oct 2013, 14:54**

Personally, I'm all for more local decision-making so long as any decisions are informed by the best evidence and/or analyis of options. If one simply bends to the whims of those who shout the loudest, or have the time and inclination to get involved, or god forbid the Colonel Blimps and sharp-elbowed, you're not really any further forward if 'centralised' decision-making is seen as a problem.

Good illustration in some of the posts above. There are always trade-offs with respect to services and spend, and with respect to mooted parking suspensions, possible perverse consequences. People get exercised about parking and shout very loud. It is to easy to think and portray solutions as straightforward. Unfortunately, a moment's thought and a recognition that any community or public has many voices, demonstrates the challenges. I use the word 'challenges' advisedly - it doesn't mean it's a non-runner it's just that whatever 'you' (in the generality) might want is not necessarily best for the community and once a robust assessment is made the costs outweigh any benefits as it were. Deciding that takes a lot of hard graft and thought.

Richard Broughton

Posted: **11 Oct 2013, 03:25**

I don't have a car now and so parking doesn't cause me any problems apart from the Jerks who put a wheel on the pavement to stop their car being caught by passing traffic (totally selfish because they are using the legally parked cars as protection for their own). I agree totally with David and Kev, leave Barlick parking alone, it works! Never mind looking for problems from the market, leave that until they actually happen! Advocating free for all in any aspect of life makes one wonder why we settled for sensible rules in the first place. This smacks of a desperate search for populist headlines by people who have already started electioneering. I wonder what an outsider would think who comes from somewhere where parking is really a problem?
Arrival of the first Hornblower books..... Just like Christmas!

Posted: **11 Oct 2013, 07:12**

If anyone had told me that I'd live to see the day when the Red Cross would appeal for donations to relieve hunger in England I wouldn't have believed them. That's what is reported this morning. Is this what Cameron meant by 'The Big Society'? Feeding the poorest using donations from those slightly better off? Will he be making a large donation?
Just announced that anyone who was able to get hold of RM shares can get an instant profit of 35% and the price appears to be still going up. Great.......

Posted: **11 Oct 2013, 09:21**

Tardis wrote:At a local level, the people can decide what they wish from their services and those bodies do have the facilities to raise their own revenues.

How , Annual referenda on every budget line ? Like national elections we are presented with assorted coloured buckets of promises , aspirations , commitments . And each elections we have to choose one of those bucket fulls , even if some of the stuff in one of those buckets we didnt like , or would have preferred something else out of a different bucket. Then anyway over time either the bucket holder fails to get out the stuff over time , leaving the promise undone , or circumstances change and the aspiration cannot be delivered , or someone else comes along and tells us the bucket was the wrong shape or whatever and we cannot have what we wanted anyway.

Posted: **11 Oct 2013, 13:02**

Can I please ask that members do not double post replies in more than one thread. I have already read the extract of text above elsewhere. Once is quite enough. Quoting a previous post as part of a reply is perfectly acceptable but the reply itself should be in one thread only.

Thank you.

Posted: **11 Oct 2013, 22:34**

Its a problem with this thread , and to what extent it takes a comment that then takes a turn into another (better) subject area , so I was responding to a thought in this thread , then realised it could do with a few additional musings and would run better under general politics , again there thinking , to make sense of my further thoughts to copy over my first thoughts and quoted initial spark , to copy them in full to get better sense.

Posted: **12 Oct 2013, 04:10**

The fact that Margaret Nd Mick are checking in at Perth as I write. I was a tad previous when I posted the other day. They land at Manchseter tomorrow morning.... Tension mounts.

Posted: **12 Oct 2013, 10:08**

Whyperion wrote:Its a problem with this thread , and to what extent it takes a comment that then takes a turn into another (better) subject area , so I was responding to a thought in this thread , then realised it could do with a few additional musings and would run better under general politics , again there thinking , to make sense of my further thoughts to copy over my first thoughts and quoted initial spark , to copy them in full to get better sense.

I'm glad that's all cleared up then.

Posted: **12 Oct 2013, 13:54**

It was yesterday, but I had to go to Leeds.

Someone obviously took a shine to one of the bollards newly installed in Valley Gardens

Pendle Council wrote:Installation of bollards £200.00 (contractor)

Lucky that it was recycled?

Posted: **12 Oct 2013, 13:59**

Plus it is consultations like this:

http://www.pendle.gov.uk/news/article/1 ... tamination

I have heard the same about the recycling bins too.

Landfill tax has risen from £1/tonne when Brown imposed it and will shortly be £100/tonne, so it doesn't take a great mathematician to work out how one person's carelessness can actually end up costing the council and obviously all the Council Tax payers, far more than it actually should. That money is then available for other things

Posted: **13 Oct 2013, 08:23**

Tardis wrote:Someone obviously took a shine to one of the bollards newly installed in Valley Gardens

The bollards, which have been reused at Valley Gardens following a previous life elsewhere in Pendle, are being repainted one at a time off site.

Posted: **14 Oct 2013, 04:16**

The bollard is back and the council workers are 'taking a shine' to the other.
You take your knickers off and get settled down for your afternoon sleep and suddenly all hell breaks loose. Jack in full tenting mode.....

It was Margaret and Mick, fresh off the plane from Oz via Clitheroe so I forgave them. Margaret took this pic of me:

Posted: **14 Oct 2013, 09:09**

All good pics. The difference in skin colour is quite different, hehe

Margaret and Mick... have a great holiday

Posted: **14 Oct 2013, 10:16**

In broad daylight?

Posted: **14 Oct 2013, 11:35**

Did I relate the saga/red tape that my daughter has been going thru for the past couple of months? Chels was born in Australia 26yrs ago in 1987. I arrived here in ’64 and her dad in ’66. We were both (mostly) educated here, worked here, paid taxes here, bought homes here etc etc. We married in 1975 and in 1992 we decided to become Naturalized, to become Australians. Chels was then 5yrs old and remembers being at the ceremony with us. It was held at our local council offices with lots of other people also becoming naturalized Australians, with dignitaries present. We have a photo somewhere. A couple of months ago my daughter applied for her Passport, she and some of her girlfriends had decided to go overseas to an island resort and have their first overseas holiday, all perfectly normal. Their plan was to go away in November... plenty of time to get organised. You can imagine my daughters shock when applying for her Passport and being told that she is an Alien!! She was born here, (educated here, works here, pays taxes here, has her own home here,) but she is not recognised as an Australian!! Her shock and disbelief and feeling of not knowing what was happening, what it all meant was very upsetting. I have never thought of her as not being an Australian. I specifically gave her an English Christian Name so that she would always be reminded that she was in fact of English blood, from her parents, both grandparents, all great grandparents etc ! I actually became an Australian due to fears of any unrest happening (a war for example), and thinking that we would both be Australian and therefore we would stay together. I was so sure that she was classified as an Australian. After many checks and meetings after applying for her Passport, she was eventually told that a few years after her Dad and I were Naturalized, the laws were changed and all children born here, of parents not born here, would have to apply to become Australians in their own right! Apparently the law changed about 16yrs ago, needless to say that no-one let us know. (It must have been put in the too-hard basket... *%&^*#* ! ) Oh the frustration.. The explanation for all this upheaval is that as her parents when she was born, we were not citizens, we were only residents, even tho the law was changed 10yrs after she was born here. And all this time she too has only been a resident, not a citizen.
Anyway, today I received news from Chels that as from today she is now an Australian Citizen. She is now working full-speed-ahead to get her Passport and Visa so she can hopefully join her girlfriends on their holiday.

Posted: **14 Oct 2013, 14:10**

All shiny and a matching pair now in Valley Gardens

Posted: **14 Oct 2013, 14:11**

Today in history the Battle of Hastings was fought

Posted: **14 Oct 2013, 21:48**

Cathy, something similar happened to my Mum. She was born in Australia, back to England at 7, evacuated to Aus during the war then back to Engalnd at 19. Dad, me and my sisters are all born in England. When Mum & Dad decided in 1967 to move to live in Australia Mum couldn't get either an English passport or an Australian passport. I don't remember the exact details but we all came over on Dad's passport and Mum has never left the country since and in all her life never had a passport of her own. Good job she never wanted to travel again. I sympathise with your daughter.

Posted: **15 Oct 2013, 03:17**

Fortnight since first Op. Only a week of eye drops to go!

Posted: **16 Oct 2013, 05:34**

The stupid and totally avoidable spat between Andrew Mitchell and the police at the gates to Downing Street. What is really disturbing is the suggestion that the independent body, the IPCC has been leaned on. Someone somewhere could be driving this forward and the question is Why?

Posted: **16 Oct 2013, 07:23**

Our Santas being unavailable being unavailable for the Grotto at Barlick's Switch On event on November 9th. (Yes, that's right, we have more than one of them - with upwards of 400 children to see in a few short hours, he needs to work double time if you get my drift...)

Santa #1 (84) very apologetic, happy to do next year, but very recent heart by-pass op means he's out of the running.

Santa #2 (retirement age, but still hard at it) had forgotten daughter getting married that day... and she wasn't too pleased when he rang to say he couldn't go as he was being Santa...

Big Kev has been suggested as a very appropriate substitute - any other suggestions? (Sorry, but Mrs Santa has already been declined as not meeting children's expectations. That may get folk going...)

Posted: **16 Oct 2013, 08:53**

Cathy, I'm glad to hear it's all now worked out OK for your daughter...but very frustrating at the time and it can make a person feel like they don't exist as far as the state is concerned.

Posted: **16 Oct 2013, 14:05**

Barnoldswick Town Centre Action Group:

Come along and have your say

OneGuyFromBarlick

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