Comments on: High Street - Time For Pedestrianisation?

By: John Sime

John Sime — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:51:25 +0000

Mark. The joke is, hardly anyone walks in the road when the cars are banned - they still squash on to the pavement.
However, I still think cars should be banned completely from the City. They’re a gas guzzling menace. People should send their children to school on the bus or make them walk. Anyone looking to buy a large item should jolly well go to Kings Lynn or Cambridge and forget Ely shops. We could then turn the High Street into a tourist attraction e.g.: a living museum with mock shops selling bags of sweets and shoes made from wood etc. Three problems solved in one go. Cleaner air,more tourists and no traffic problems. No really, it also means no need for the endless debate on car parking as anyone with a car will move to Newmarket - they’ll be doing all their shopping there so why not move there?

By: Mark Du Plessis

Mark Du Plessis — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:33:40 +0000

As I’m new to Ely (6 months) I haven’t be around to see the changes that have gone on to the High street, but…

I do find during the week or early Saturday mornings when I have to drop of my boxes at the post office the street is empty. If the street was closed I would not be able to get my post delivered or I would have to take multiple trips. If closed are the retail shops going to help carry items to your car 10 minutes away e.g a new TV or something large? What about the extra traffic that will now have to use “The Gallery” and “Back hill” roads. They bad enough in the morning trying to get to the station, but on the other hand I do enjoy when the road is closed and you can walk in the open avoiding the squash on the pavement.

By: Jo Godfroy

Jo Godfroy — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 21:42:54 +0000

I agree that the High Street should be pedestrianised. Most of the people who park there do so inconsiderately, and show a remarkable lack of driving skill.

Another parking bug-bear is the total non-observance of the double yellow lines on Forehill. I have counted up to more than a dozen vehicles parked there on some occasions. Many are people delivering/collecting items from the ‘used items shop’, the dry cleaners, and works vehicles.

However, I do understand that in this context the lines do present a problem, for I myself have had to park on double yellow lines when the need arose to take my computer into the Ely Computer Store on Broad Street/Ship Lane, as it is simply too heavy for me to carry.

Surely there must be a sensible way to solve these dilemmas? Maybe time restrictions?

By: Mary McGuire

Mary McGuire — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:44:11 +0000

I reckon the “shopping experience” in Ely would be a lot more pleasant if the High Street were pedestrianised.

Maybe more people would come here, stay longer in the city and spend more money if they didn’t have to dodge cars all the way up the High Street. Imagine if you could eat outside at Starbucks and Pizza Express, hey we could even pedestrianise Market Street, no problems for little old ladies in caps in the Hereward Pub, they could eat outside….

Seriously though… Argos do deliver.

Do we really want Ely to become the kind of place people whizz into by car, to get a paper and a pint of milk, drop off or pick up the dry cleaning, grab a coffee on the way to work or the like? The view seems to be that we can only be that… what about trying to make our City the kind of place people want to stay and shop in for a morning or and afternoon. We have lots of attractions, lots of nice places to eat, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility is it?

Surely the longer people stay and the more pleasant it is for them to browse the shops the more they’ll spend.

Just a thought…

By: John Sime

John Sime — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 12:46:39 +0000

Oh I give up! Ban all cars from Ely High Street at all times. Let’s give in to the car hate brigade and ban all cars as well. Stop people using cars for school runs and almost every other journey and let’s return to the 18th Century. Let’s kill the high street off completley - Argos will go, Blockbuster will go and we’ll be left with even more card shops,estate agents, banks etc. Let’s close all the car park areas as well to discourage cars even more and then visitors can parade around our “city” and marvel at the cathedral and all the , er, er, card shops and empty high street.
Cars are hated so let’s rid the whole country of the evil smelling, oil guzzling monsters once and for all.
Let’s start in Ely.

By: Philip Gould

Philip Gould — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 19:58:42 +0000

If the parking in High street was correctly monitored by the Community Support staff then traffic movement would cause no problems. The police have recntly ciruclated an E-Cops message claiming that attention would be paid to the problem it seems that the message has not reached C.S.O as two stood chatting in the street whilst unloading bays were occupied by private cars and other vehicles were obstructing the footpath .The layout of the street with no raised kerb shows that the council intended to pedesrianise the street but local objections stopped them.

By: Godfrey George

Godfrey George — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 12:46:35 +0000

We have a similar situation here in Rochester. An historic town, pedestrianised high street only on a Saturday.

I run a shop and I, along with many other business-people in the High Street would have few objections to total pedestrianisation provided bulky deliveries and collections could be made say, up to 10 o’clock and after 4.

From the research I have done so far into the effects on business I am convinced that getting traffic out of town centres, generally
will increase trade. There are many City Council websites in the U.K. and worldwide which include statistics on their schemes and from what I have gathered allowing for possible bias is that the benefits to business and customers is pretty clear.

Here are some of the advantages;

1. Improved safety and mobility for shoppers.
2. Reduction of air pollution and noise.
3. Improved general environment.
4. Increase in trade for most businesses trade.

Pedestrianisation has appeared to work in thousands of towns and cities around the world. I, for one will be pursuing the case for Rochester and I wish Ely

All the best.

By: Mary McGuire

Mary McGuire — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 12:44:02 +0000

“The high street is dead on Saturdays. It’s queieter than most weekdays.”

Or is it just that we’re not all squished onto the pavement so it LOOKS like there are less of us?

I get completely fed up with it during the week, tripping over buggies and small children or trying to inch between the overhanging cars and groups of people stopping for a chat.

Not only that but while I’m having a good old rant I’d like to point out that the argument against pedestrianising the High Street; that it has to be open to cars because people stop to shop is complete cobblers. Who stops there? Who actually manages to find a space after 9 o’clock… EVER? I work from home but often pop out to meetings during the day. I often remember something I need to get on the way home; go to the cash point, buy a paper or a pint of milk, that kind of thing. I have tried, repeatedly to park in the High Street and run my errands there. I’ve managed it once in three years. All the other times I’ve had to go home, park and walk back in.

So if I’m on the way home from a meeting and a bit pushed for time, guess where I go to use the cashpoint or buy a paper or a pint of milk now?

Why would any sane person want to keep the High Street the way it is? It’s the worst of both worlds, inconvenient for shoppers coming in by car and inconvenient for shoppers on foot.

By: Sasha Carey

Sasha Carey — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:43:41 +0000

I think the High Street should stop cars going down there , at least on weekends

By: Karl Bedingfield

Karl Bedingfield — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:47:16 +0000

‘Diagonal parking is the only way to park as it’s easier to enter and leave a space.’

That is true BUT it was not designed for diagonal parking and there lies the problem of why most cars are either parked on the pavement superficially or their rear end overhangs into the road.

It wasn’t so long ago that High Street had parallel parking. I never found it a problem parking in my 25 years of driving in Ely.