Will Eve concede to a zebra?
It is commendable that Portsmouth High School pupil Eve Mellor is calling to keep Castle Road closed for road safety reasons (The News, Friday, May 7) – she is obviously a caring person and so I am pretty sure she will be happy to modify her request to putting in a zebra crossing instead when she hears how unbearable the road closure makes life for many Castle Road residents.
Castle Road is 80 per cent residential and many of the residents (and several of the traders) have had their lives turned into a nightmare since the road closed.
Eve hasn’t considered what it is like to live in a road where you are suddenly unable to access your home – to have to walk hundreds of yards once you find a parking space with heavy bags of shopping in all weathers, having to make several trips with shopping bags from a car parked in another road.
We have residents with arthritis who have been trapped in their homes for months because they cannot get a car or taxi near their door any more.
If you come home after dark, ladies now face a daunting walk in a closed and frightening area with no passing cars, just the odd drunk or junkie because we have lost the right to get a taxi to our front doors. There are many, many more unpleasant and anti-social problems that have arrived with the road closure including used condoms, needles and human excrement in doorways.
The convenience store has lost its parcel collection service solely because the road was closed and is losing business because of the lack of passing traffic. The estate agent’s staff have to park roads away every time they need to pop in for a set of keys for a house viewing. Illegally parked cars at the ends of the road are now a constant issue for some residents as car parks and driveways are blocked in the area. Unpleasant altercations commonly result from polite requests for access to people's homes.
How would any of the News’ readers feel if their road was suddenly closed to all traffic and they couldn’t access their homes or park nearby? And worse, last September we experienced what the road is like when it is closed and turned into a concrete beer garden. The noise was appalling and the aggressive and anti-social behaviour of drunks had to be seen to be believed. Eve was fortunate she wasn’t at school then as she would have had to fight her way through the drunks to get to her lessons – something I am certain she would not wish on her fellow pupils.
Interestingly in 70 years of records there has only been one accident in Castle Road, nearly 40 years ago when a vehicle clipped a building.
No person has ever been hurt in an accident in Castle Road and it has probably an unmatched safety record in the city.
The Castle Road Residents’ Association would be very happy
In 70 years of records there has only been one accident in Castle Road, nearly 40 years ago JON COOPER
to talk with Eve and illustrate the problems that a closed road gives to residents and to work with her to see if the council will consider a controlled crossing.
A crossing would be much more effective as the temporarily closed Castle Road is currently quite dangerous with bikes and scooters mixing with pedestrians.
A crossing stops cars, bikes and scooters so is a far safer option for everyone.
This would also be much less
expensive than turning a residential road into a beer garden and I am equally certain Eve would not want the residents to have to have their lives and their properties blighted any longer now that the closure experiment has been tried and has failed for so many residents and traders.
Jon Cooper Castle Road Southsea Portsmouth