‘Council seems to be papering over cracks’
RECENT headlines regarding Leek’s problems prompted me to make the following observations.
Have SMDC finally woken up to their mistakes or are they papering over the cracks? Only time will tell.
First the roads. Reversing traffic flow in Ford Street is a small but welcome step.
Next the bell/bollards at the Ashbourne road/haywood Street junction has history, constantly requiring repairs due to poor construction and planning.
The damaged kerbs are symptomatic of the carriageways being too narrow for vehicles to negotiate safely and requires remodelling, with the inclusion of a proper pedestrian crossing.
These are but a few of the faults in this road system, a nip and a tuck here and there will not suffice. A major overhaul is required to bring it into line with the latest Government rules on safety and air quality.
SMDC’S problems with the market are mainly of their own making.
Decisions and neglect by the council have resulted in a Wednesday market horror show. It should have remained unmolested in the market place.
The stall area created by the removal of the roundabout was chosen only to justify its existence.
At last SMDC has been forced to act. Urgent measures are now being applied to save Leek’s charter market from disaster.
Grants to help with rent, stall improvements, and marketing are available and long overdue, which begs the question why were these measures not applied sooner?
The warning signs have been there for months. Let us hope applying these measures and the onset of better weather will enable the market to recover.
Don’t forget, no retail enterprise can survive without customers. If you don’t use it, you lose it, which would be a tragedy for the town.
Leek tourist office is another casualty of decisions by the SMDC.
Over several years the council promised strong support and investment to the local tourist industry and the startling results can clearly be seen, in all its glory, in the Nicholson Institute, a dark little hideaway on the first floor landing has replaced a prominent Market Place position.
Councillor Sybil Ralphs has now announced the tourist office will move into Moorlands House, no doubt a corner or a corridor will be found appropriate.
I’ve a better plan, one that involves the council honouring their promises of support and investment that has never materialised.
A plan that would show SMDC is serious about tourism and its benefit to the town.
Invest in a shop unit in the town centre to promote and sell the area.
Other local towns have a physical presence on the High Street for their tourist offices. Why not Leek?
Treat it as a medium term community investment, not as a bean counting exercise. Such a move would be of immense benefit to us all now and in the future and put Leek and surrounding areas firmly on the tourist map.
Edwin Ash Leek