Thursday 14 January 2010, author: admin

Totnes and District Chamber of Commerce submission to Traffic and Transport Forum first draft. The Chamber has been asked on several occasions over the last three years, 'what is the Chamber of Commerce position?' on this or that aspect of traffic management in the town. The answer invariably has to be that we have no 'position' and that the most that can be said is that we have made responses about various aspects of traffic management in the past. The challenge has always been how to be proactive rather than reactive. Being reactive means always being perceived as saying 'No” to some proposal no matter how wise or foolish that proposal might be. Being proactive means thinking carefully about issues affecting business in Totnes and developing a considered and informed proposal. The result might not be the 'right' answer but it will provide a framework for intelligent as opposed to reactive and uninformed responses. The Strategy Sub Group of the Totnes Traffic and Transport Forum is the source of the most recent request for a position statement from the Chamber. This group has begun a process of gathering as many and varied responses from across the whole community with the aim of firstly making them available to everybody and secondly to discover and develop areas of consensus. . REASONS WHY THIS MIGHT BE IMPOSSIBLE 1. The Chamber does not and does not claim to, represent ALL the businesses in Totnes (even less so in 'the District') 2. Members of the Chamber are as varied in their opinions as is the community as a whole and as some of these opinions may be diametrically and irreconcilably opposed a consensus might be unreachable. 3. The response to most enquiries from the administrative centre of the Chamber to the Membership is historically very low. A variety of explanations for this are offered, none researched, but the outcome is that any Chamber statement purporting to represent the view of the business community has all the flaws of the parliamentary representative system, and then some. REASONS TO BE OVERWHELMED A closer look at the traffic and transport issues, which might reasonably concern the business community quickly, throws up the following examples 1. Car Parking. Are District and County Council policies gradually losing car parking spaces in the town? What figure would constitute an ideal number of spaces and at what point would clamouring for parking needs destroy the very attractiveness of the town which is enjoyed by visitors and workers in the first place? In any case who has these figures or is doing this research? 2. Infrastructure. What should we propose regarding the expected major increase of traffic between the Torbay and Plymouth conurbations? Should we support the By-pass proposals, say, let the commuters stew in a juice of their own making whilst rendering Totnes inaccessible -- or find an alternative? 3. Cycling. We have consulted with cycling groups and with the DCC officer responsible about the provision of bicycle stands in the town, where these should be sited, whether the Chamber could sponsor them etc etc. but we have yet to reach any conclusions. 4. Residents Parking. This should be beyond the remit of the Chamber but some obvious questions do present themselves such as …. · How many workers presently driving to Totnes park in these residential streets and where will they now park? (Do you know the answers for your business?) · What happens if a large number choose to buy all-year permits for the town car parks and so reduce significantly the number of spaces for visitors/shoppers? · If the above happens what precisely will be the impact on revenue from parking as income from season tickets is considerably less than that from a freely available space? · What, if any, consideration has been given to providing for residents of the High St and Fore St? · How does it happen that no research has been done and nothing proposed to deal with the knock-on effect of these parking schemes? Should we care? 5. Looking to a future when river transport may well again become important for Totnes and its hinterland, how should we respond to the Baltic Wharf development which appears to considerably reduce the space available for river based employment? 6. Oh yes, nearly forgot - Pedestrianisation. How come we've heard nothing about this for over 20 years now? Why is there such total agreement as to what exactly the 'P'-word means? Why haven't any politicians jumped on the bandwagon? How exactly was it achieved that everybody made such strenuous efforts to acquaint themselves with the facts and figures before uttering an opinion? These and other similar questions have never been asked. Why? As the Traffic and Transport Working group has discovered over recent years there are few areas of current or future development in Totnes and environs that are not to some extent connected to traffic issues. Which of these are of direct and immediate concern for the business sector in the town is probably not relevant if we are not going to address them. Or, if having addressed them, we are unable to ensure that the powers that be take our responses on board as part of their planning process. REASONS TO BE GLOOMY At a public meeting called by the Town Council to elicit opinion on the 'Future of the Traffic Flow in Totnes' the following comments were made. 'goods vehicles coming into town should have a limited time for deliveries' 'parking fees should be reduced or abolished altogether' 'why should Devon County Council thrust a pedestrianisation scheme on Totnes which was against the wishes of the people' plus a score or more further comments At the end of the meeting 'it was overwhelmingly agreed that the traffic should enter the town at the bottom of Fore St. and proceed right up through High St.' You might have missed this meeting, on the 23rd Jan. …29 years ago. The detailed minutes, available at the Guild Hall are a painful reminder of how little discussion has progressed since then. BUT, there have been very serious attempts to develop the debate. In July 1999 at the behest of the then mayor Cllr. David Horsburgh a group was set up to try to address seriously the traffic concerns of Totnes. And seriously it did so, first of all employing an independent facilitator, (Paul Holder from Bristol), raising 15,000 pounds to fund the process, contacting every single organisation and interest group in the town and keeping them informed and involved, holding open meetings in the Civic Hall etc.etc. Over the next two years the most democratic and consultative process that Totnes has ever seen, or is ever likely to see, took place.(at this time I have the documentation, several boxes of it should anyone like to see ) Over 20 proposals were received from the community, whittled down by applying the community's agreed criteria until one proposal remained. At this point the biggest and most common mistake was made; we handed it all over to Devon County Council. We breathed a sigh of relief after the thousands of voluntary hours we had put in and handed it all over. We did not understand that, after any community consultation, no matter how extensive and rigorous, the pattern is that the local authority will tick the box marked 'consultation', carefully take note of any recommendations they already agreed with and ignore the rest. In this instance, the community's failure to keep an eye on the ball once it was passed to the DCC resulted in: 1. Extensive delays due to “lack of funds' 2. Piecemeal implementation with no reference to overall design criteria or standards 3. Idiosyncratic interpretation of the overall scheme with, for example, odd and ugly bollards sprouting up in places they were never requested. 4. Total absence of any assessment of the efficacy of any of the works 5. Absence of any street-scene aesthetic consideration to be put in place along side the technical fixes So the end product of a two-year, 15,000pound, many- thousand volunteer- hour, community-wide consultation has been a hotchpotch of poorly implemented alterations in the heart of a historic town centre which please very few but anger a great many and actually rarely appear to achieve the traffic management improvements that were originally intended. Meanwhile, traffic levels increase and another layer of Totnesians who are not aware of past research and debate try to get involved starting at square one. REASONS TO BE CAREFUL The one word that predominates over all others is of course …pedestrianisation. It is very rarely, if ever, defined clearly or specifically. The motivation of individuals who advocate 'pedestrianisation' indicates a very wide range of interest; from the newly arrived parent with a big buggy that cannot be accommodated in the town centre they have chosen to live in, to the dedicated environmentalist who is committed to ending this society's dependence on carbon guzzling motor cars; from the idealistic town planner gazing enviously at other country's placid car-free town centres to the newly elected politician trying to raise their profile; from the resident who has never owned a car and doesn't understand why anyone should, to the struggling shopkeeper who believes that a pedestrian only shopping mall would benefit their particular business, and so on, the list seems endless and elastic. The Chamber of Commerce 'position' over the past15-20 years has loosely been one of supporting a pedestrian friendly amelioration of the street scene. More specifically this means that we have advocated measures that physically and psychologically discourage unnecessary traffic and most importantly, dangerous speeds, the latter being seen as by far the most important factor. However, over that period, car ownership in the South Hams has increased enormously, freight lorries have ballooned in size, cars whisper no warning and are twice as powerful. One group that does not get consulted about changes to the town centre is the residents, 200-300 of them. They might well be tempted to ask an advocate of traffic banning –'if you're so keen on a traffic-free environment, why don't you make a start on your own street? Surely this would be a much less problematic space and the more people who were successful in their own back yard, or rather, front street, the more this idea could roll out across the whole town. Or isn't this pedestrianisation idea such a good one for where you live yourself? Let us look then at some of the exceptions that a resident might present against pedestrianising their own street. 1. Fire engines 2. Ambulances 3. Police cars 4. Disabled residents 5. Doctors and nurses on call 6. Parcel deliveries 7. Refuse collection 8. Recycling collection 9. Bob the Bus 10. Supermarket deliveries 11. Environmentally friendly electric vehicles 12. Their own cars (only joking) And now let us add a few which are particular to Fore St. and High St. 1. Church weddings and funerals 2. Securicor cash transport to 4 banks, 3 building societies and 1 post office 3. Postal collections from boxes and post office 4. Stall holders for Fri and Sat markets and Elizabethan Tuesdays in the summer 5. Blood Transfusion Services vans to Civic Hall sessions 6. Deliveries and carriage trade --- more later Now a little detour as it were, into rat-run traffic Everyone agrees that rat-running through the town should be stopped. Various proposals have been made, the latest being a revival of the idea that vehicles should enter from Station Rd. and divide up and down Fore St. The theory is that as this stops traffic travelling the whole length of the main street it would therefore prevent rat-running. The implementation of any proposal would of course have to be expertly researched beforehand to avoid unnecessary expense and unforeseen consequences. Unfortunately there is no such research as yet on the exact nature, quantity and duration of rat-run traffic, although a number of amateur and self interested surveys have been done it all comes down to 'it must be true because I say it's true' at present. One Councillor claimed recently that 70% of traffic in town is of the rat-run variety!!! So maybe that is the truth. If major alterations are to be put in place to prevent rat-runs then it would seem to be a good idea to implement them based on accurate, objective and expert figures. If, for example, such research were to show rat-running to consist of a maximum of 40 cars between 8.15 and 8.45am and between 5.15 and 5.45pm then a different set of responses would be called for than if it were proved that half of all cars were rat-running. Carriage Trade. This used to be described as custom from rich people but might better be described now as custom from time-poor people. It refers to an abbreviated form of pop 'n shop where customers already know what they want or have previously ordered and have come to collect, For example, daily newspapers, a bunch of flowers, gas cylinder etc Some shops have none of this type of custom, for others it represents a significant proportion of turnover and repeat custom. Previously ordered goods might include heavy items such as furniture or fragile goods such as glass picture frames. There are of course shopping centres elsewhere which do not sell such goods or who have rear access for collection. In this town however, such businesses help contribute to the attractive and vibrant range of retailers and probably should not be dismissed as unimportant. Deliveries - often the first issue to be mentioned in considering town centre traffic. Two main solutions to the continuous flow of delivery vehicles have been presented. 1. A depot on the industrial estate for all deliveries with smaller vans redistributing to the town centre. Obvious questions a) Who pays for such a service b) What to do with frozen and refrigerated goods c) Who checks each delivery for damaged containers etc. d) How is insurance covered e) And probably a few other questions that any particular business would need to have answered 2. Limit deliveries to before 10.00am and after 4.00pm. This is the most popular 'solution'. No figures are as yet available of the number of delivery vehicles in the course of an average day. The obvious question has to be, could they all be squeezed into the two hours available (assuming all the freight carriers would or could comply) and how would one clear the road at 10.00am to make it traffic free again. Many proponents of this approach say, 'well it happens in other towns, why not here?' but fail so far to come up with a single example of a town with one main street, on a steep hill, with no rear access for the majority of businesses, that has been successfully 'pedestrianised'. REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL I am aware that the tone of much of the above might seem somewhat negative about the difficulties of change or even the impossibilities. But here is a quote from Buckminster Fuller. YOU NEVER CHANGE THINGS BY FIGHTING THE EXISTING REALITY.TO CHANGE SOMETHING BUILD A NEW REALITY THAT MAKES THE EXISTING REALITY OBSOLETE Totnes is a vibrant and attractive trading town and some changes will be forced upon it by factors such as national and global economics, by oil prices, by government legislation etc. What we can do is to try and keep it economically and environmentally sustainable. We cannot afford to be complacent about the status quo nor resort to the reasonable sounding 'if it aint bust, then don't try to fix it.' We need to hold on to the ideal that what is good for the wider community of Totnes is good for the business community …and vice-versa. Short termism should have no place, nor blinkered self-interest, party political advantage or unsubstantiated dogma. The Chamber of Commerce and the wider business community has a vital role to play in the town and just as retailers request the support of the community to 'shop local' so businesses have a reciprocal obligation to the whole community. So please treat the above outline of some of the traffic and transport issues as challenges, not just for business but for the whole of Totnes, not as a resource for negativity but as a starting point towards a series of realistic solutions based on research, facts, experience and a determination not to let inertia result in the worst of all possible worlds. Please send all your thoughts, suggestions, corrections, critiques by the end of January and they will all feed into a final consensual document to be submitted for your approval by St Valentine's Day