PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE PRIORITY

FURTHER to the comments by the anonymous Rossendale Highwayman and Scribbler in last week’s Free Press, concerning the proposed layout of Bacup town centre, perhaps I can help them understand it.

I have attended two well publicised public meetings on the proposals where my comments on further improvements were welcomed so I do not understand the accusations of lack of consultation.

The current layout of the five-road junction in the town centre, designed by traditional petrolhead highways engineers, ensures that vehicles have absolute dominance.

It is impossible for pedestrians to cross safely and there is very little space for them to access shops.

It also allows vehicles travelling from Market Street to Yorkshire Street to move at excessively high and dangerous speeds.

Of course footfall levels are currently low; there’s no space for feet to fall!

Little wonder that there are empty buildings. The THI proposal is to be commended as it addresses all of these problems. Far more space is given to people and less to vehicles, giving the impression that in the town centre, people have priority. The new zebra crossings will considerably slow down speeding traffic.

Similar schemes throughout Britain have demonstrated that people friendly towns have a higher footfall and higher spend; good news for shopkeepers and cafés.

If you are uncertain about this then go and look and talk to the traders.

Urban development over the last 4,000 years of human history has demonstrated that space for people combined with useful public facilities make for vibrant towns.

The suggestion that large trucks will not be able to negotiate the roundabouts does not accord with the national design guidelines used by the current (and people friendly) LCC highways engineers.

Yes, perhaps more thought needs to go into deliveries but hopefully the solution will not be the present system of illegal and dangerous pavement parking.

It would be a great shame if the dramatic improvements the THI is making to the buildings in Bacup has no effect on footfall simply because of outdated ideas of traffic having priority over people. Colin Hubbard via email