Quandary of keeping the wider pavements in town

WE’RE all sick of seeing the red and white bollards that have been littering St John Street, Dig Street and Compton for what feels like years. So it might be welcome news that they’re finally going to be taken away this week.

But it’s not that simple. They might be coming straight back. Well, a few of them at least.

The county council is in a quandary. They’re desperate to keep the wider pavements we’ve all been at least trying to enjoy since we were forced to put the system to the test during the pandemic, but giving pedestrians more room means allowing them to mix with live traffic. And that’s just not safe.

In the long run, wider pavements could be made to accommodate this extra space they want to give us all, but that’s not an overnight job by any means, and in the meantime there’s two options; either put everything back to how it was, or install temporary measures until there’s a permanent fix.

The danger of putting everything back to how it was is that then we’d have to start from scratch again. At the moment, we can show the authorities that our virtual widening scheme works. And it becomes a much easier job to make it permanent.

The trouble is, while that discussion is ongoing, the only way to keep pedestrians safe is to separate them from passing vehicles with temporary bollards. Which puts us back to square one.

At the moment, though, the bollards are being moved into place every night only for them to be shoved out of the way again within a few hours. They just end up getting stacked awkwardly together, or even lobbed in the river.

So it looks like we’re stuck with them for a while longer. But at least Shrovetide will give us a taste of what life will be like without them. Albeit briefly.