Roger Gambba-Jones

When I was a kid in London, the favourite gripe in the queue for a bus was, 'Yer wait for blooming ages and then three come along all at the same time!'.  Well the same thing has happened with some planning applications that have been kicking around for a long time and now have all been submitted at the same time.  Two apps are for the same thing - the Pinchbeck Road/Woolram Wygate junction traffic lights.  The other is for a pedestrian crossing on Wygate Park outside the neighbourhood shopping centre (the Coop to us locals!). 

I suspect that, with a fair wind and a bit of good will, the pedestrian crossing will appear well before the junction gets sorted because there are still some issues with the actual work required and the applications appear to be an attempt to get things moving rather than get things done!  Nevertheless, the submission of these two applications will at least allow the public to have their say and may well 'expose' some of the issues that are preventing progress from being made.

The other intriguing bit to this is the re-emergence, if that's the right term, of Kier as an active developer in South Holland.  The rumour mill had suggested that they were jumping ship and that the remaining development areas would eventually be sold on to unknown parties.  At this time I remain undecided as to what this will mean for us in Wygate Park, as I would of much to have seen it continue in the hands of a developer with a genuine local connection. 

Still, if Kier are continuing, that might be better than the seriously remote and often unapproachable players such as Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, or even, harking back to a previous experience, Jelson Homes, taking over the sites.  Only time will tell!

My prioroty now wil be to get the roads fiished propoerly and to get the open space finished and useable.  Some residents have described the areas around Robin Way and Saltern as like Beruit!  - a bit extreme, but I think I known how they feel.  It may not of actually been blown up but it all looks a bit ramshackle and uncared for.   

A very interesting development in the fight to get our relatives, neighbours and friends to slow down when driving around our local roads, is the latest info from the Lincs Road Safety Partnership.  See the latest letter from the casualty reduction officer.

07_1_.05.08_reply_AT_various_roads-_Wygate-_Spalding.doc

Just in case you don't have time to read the letter, it would appear that those drivers using Monks House Lane (in one direction anyway) are some of the worst offenders, as the look of the road seems to make them think they're on the A16 instead of a local residential road!  One section of Wygate Park is also cause for concern and therefore a suitable case for treatment as they say.

Rather than any need to get the community actively involved in actually monitoring traffic speeds, it seems the Probation Service will do this for us!  A request has been placed with the service to carry out speed monitoring in Monks House Lane and on Wygate Park near Law Court.

I'm not sure how they will measure the effectiveness of the temporary road signs after they've been in place, so I will be seeking some info on this from the road safety experts.

In the meantime, don't forget we can all keep up the pressure by monitoring and recording the vehicles we believe are making our streets unsafe.  Take down the details and report them to the police.

Remember that advertising campaign from a lot of years ago?  Back when The Post Office, or rather the Royal Mail, was a cherised institution along with the BBC, many people wouldn't of heard a bad word said about it - how times have changed!

I think most us still appreciate the good job our postmen and women do on the front line.  What with the British weather, the biting dogs and some of the appaling letter boxes they have to fight with - who'd be a postie!!  I learnt about the trials and tribulations of being a 'postie' by delivering leaflets and newsletters around the ward. 

I can't believe what some people do with their front doors and letter boxes - overgrown bushes and trees, flower pots and planters blocking the footpath.  Then there's the letter boxes themselves - ground level or narrow and vertical, springs that would do credit to a bear trap, or even blocked or taped up and don't get me started on the evil little dogs.  It's bad enough when they bark and then throw themselves at the letter box just as you're poking your leaflet with fingers attached through, but then you have the ones that make no noise at all and just lunge at your unsuspecting fingers!

When I take over the country (I will of course be a very benevolent dictator!) first I'll get the government off of peoples' backs by repealling all the nanny state and nosey parker rules.  Then I'll bring in a law requiring all letter boxes to be a sensible size, a sensible height and close to the footpath (that'll sort out the dogs!).  How's that for double standards?  Get rid of everybody else's big brother laws and then introduce my own!  

Anyway, back to the point of this particular rant!  A long time ago I wrote to our local postmaster asking him (or even her maybe, I never found out as he or she didn't even have the decency to reply) about the possibility of having Wygate Park included officially as part of local addresses.  

The reason for doing this was because a number of local people had complained about their mail going adrift, because of similarities between Wygate Park road names and other roads in Spalding and beyond.  Now I know we are all supposed to use the post code and that this is supposed to be the thing that makes sure we always get our mail and not somebody elses. 

Unfortunately, and this is where I can offer some personal experience, even our post-persons seem to have a problem with post codes.  I live in Claudette Way, Claudette Way is off of Claudette Avenue - that was a good idea by Allison Homes wasn't it!  Both roads have a number 14 and even with a post code on the letter you can guess what sometime happens can't you? 

Because of this we started using our house name and leaving off the house number, to see if this reduced the problem.  Unfortunately, the posties at the sorting office didn't like this and for a long time insisted on scrawling a large number 14, complete with exclamation mark (no doubt to demonstrate their annoyance) on the front of all of our letters! 

Now I know putting Wygate Park in the address wouldn't help in my case, but it does show that the post code is not the answer in all cases, even for the professionals!  It now appears that some other residents are having their mail go to other locations with similar names, but not the same postcode in Spalding, so I'm going to try again on their behalf.

So what is the problem with including Wygate Park as part of the registered address?  I don't actually know, as I said he/she never answered my original letter - hence my title for this piece - It's Good To Write!  So I'm going to write again making sure I include the post code of course - watch this space (but don't hold your breath)!  

Still on the subject of that article in Saturday's Telegraph about improving driver behaviour.  A Dutchman, Hans Monderman (who died in Jan this year) came up with the theory that instead of filling our streets up with loads of street signs, we should actually remove the signs and make drivers think twice about where the road ends and where the pedestrian bit begins!

There was a fair bit of jargon used to describe the psychology of it all, but the evidence appears to be there. the idea is, that if a driver is uncertain about where 'his' or 'her' bit of the road actually is i.e. no kerbs, no white lines, no raised footpaths, no cycle lanes, I think you get the picture, then they are likely to drive with more caution, in other words, slower!

The challenge for us as residents of the Spalding Wygate ward is, how do we apply such ideas to making our roads safer?  Answers on a postcard to......................................        

Just by coincidence, given my previous blog entries on speeding, today's Saturday Telegraph magazine had a very interesting article in it.  The title of it was, How's my driving? and as well as telling us all that we are pretty rubbish drivers (despite most of thinking we're not!) it discusses how to make our roads safer by reducing the number of road signs, including those that show speed limits.  The article is an extract from a book:   http://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307264785

Closer to home, a website run by the Sustainable Transport charity sustrans, http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.asp?sID=1207754496160

has a lot of good info on how local people can work to make the roads where they safer.  One booklet looks particularly useful because it explains how local people can actually initiate the actions needed.   Pocket_20Guide_FINAL.pdf . 

The booklets introduction states: This short guide has been written for people who would like to do something to improve the safety, condition and general feel of their street. It gives some suggestions of methods you might like to use, ways in which residents and other users of the street can work together and who you will need to involve.