Feedback from Our Autumn Newsletter!

2008-03-05T05:28:00.000-08:00

Alistair has been following up concerns expressed by Seaton & Workington residents.

Thanks to those who raised their concerns on local issues.

As reported by the Parish Council, Allerdale has promised a new bus shelter at the Marks & Spencer stop. As usual nothing is straightforward as space is limited in which to provide a shelter that will give adequate protection from the elements and is also close to where the buses stop. I am trying to get information from Allerdale's property services section. You can make your view known by calling them on 702770.

The cycleway through Seaton suffers from excessive dog fouling. Much of this is on the grass verges, but it still causes problems of smell, unsightliness and potential disease as well as the hassle of people treading in it. The cycleway is covered by poop scoop byelaws, and Allerdale's dog wardens patrol regularly and enforcement action is taken. There have been problems with vandalism to rubbish bins, but bagged dog dirt can now be put in ordinary bins.

For those with dogs who want to clean up after their animals, free doggy bags are available from Mills newsagents, Seaton garage and Allerdale Information Centre in Finkle Street. If you want to make your comments to Allerdale, phone the dog warden, on 702800.

Purple Bags!

You can currently recycle clear, brown & green glass bottles at Seaton British Legion and the Pack Horse. Cans can also be recycled at the Legion. This is good, but is only of limited use to residents.

Now Allerdale is starting a fortnightly collection of recyclables. Over the next few weeks households will receive a pack of 26 purple bags. These are for fortnightly recycling cans, glass, & plastic bottles, which will be collected on the same day as your existing paper bin. And the good news is that you don't need to separate these materials - this is done after collection. Full details will be issued with the bags, and more bags can be supplied if you need them.

For more information, call Allerdale recycling also on 702800.

Cycleways

The main cycleway from Seaton leads through the tunnel near Wilkinsons to get to the town centre. The County Council has, in its wisdom, recently made this tunnel one way for traffic travelling towards Seaton. What they didn't realise that this was the town's main cycle route. When this was pointed out they said "Oops, we hadn't thought of that." Sustrans, who developed the cycleway hadn't even been consulted on the proposal which had been decided on some months ago. To give them some credit, County officers accept this error and are working on a way to make the tunnel two way for cyclists only. This cyclists-only contraflow lane sounds potentially lethal, so I await their proposed layout before commenting further. Do you know anywhere else of a situation like this? And does it work safely?

Workington Railway Station Interchange

Initial plans for this new bus station, improved pedestrian & cycle access and bigger car park were revealed in a display at The Carnegie in December. This County Council inspired plan aims to improve links to the railway station where operator Northern has hopes for the future to improve the timetable and lengthen trains.This could mean buses from Seaton running through to the railway station. The quoted planned opening date is Spring 2009 and we are informed that "quality bus stopping areas will still be provided in the town centre" though no-one yet knows what form these will take. Traffic lights would be provided at the Station Rd/Solway Rd junction to improve pedestrian movement.

I have sent a 16 point submission to the project manager at Capita . Call Area Highways Engineer Andrew Butler on 811225 for a copy of the proposals.

I have put comments in to David Bolt, project manager at Capita, as below. There were others I thought of afterwards! David has replied saying he will consider each point and respond in due course.

It was good to see that you chose to put the interchange display at the Carnegie, where more bus travellers would have been able to see it.

Further to last night's Neighbourhood Forum meeting, I would appreciate your comments on these points:

1. What passenger numbers are expected to board & alight from buses at the interchange? Will it just be people going to the station & immediate area, or will it include those changing from bus to another as many do now at the existing bus station, eg college students?

2. Many people will be concerned as to what provision is to be made for bus passengers in the town centre? Most bus travel is to & from the centre and will presumably continue to be so. To replace the safe covered bus station with on-street stops & no shelters (as currently exists at Jane St & Washington St) would be unacceptable. If a mini-station is to be provided, will some buses terminate there rather than travelling to the interchange?

3. New traffic lights are to fitted at the junction of Station Rd & Solway Rd. Will buses be able to turn right from Solway Rd to Station Rd without having to waste time going round the viaduct one way system? On existing services, this will affect at least 12 buses an hour. For instance a number 30 travelling from Maryport to Thornhill will come south to the interchange, then go back north around the one-way before heading up Station Road. And what circuitous route will the 30A take?

4. How will the 46/47 services be routed. Presumably the 47 will run from Seaton through the town to the interchange, but that same bus then goes on to do a 46. Does this go up to town to pick up before going along Corporation Road? If so, where does it turn around in the town centre?

5. The plan shows 6 bus shelters - presumably the seventh is a taxi shelter. If so, why is the taxi stand so far from the station entrance? Would it not be better to put the taxi stand in the bay nearest the station, then use the second bay for car drop-off? This would then do away with the car drop-off point by the new station entrance, allowing the entrance canopy to be aligned to run to the east or ENE from the station, then the bus & taxi stands can be moved up to 30 metres closer to the station entrance. This will reduce the oversized pedestrian circulating area in front of the station. IOs there no leeway in the highway design standards to allow this?

6. Workington is a windy spot. The wavy canopy at the drop off point will be next to useless in bad weather. It needs walls to protect people from the elements. Will the proposed shelters give sufficient protection from the prevailing wind? What passenger numbers are the shelters designed to accommodate?

7. What provision is there for a bus enquiry office, bus staff offices or bus staff mess room?

8. Where are the public toilets? Will these be additional to those propsed for the railway station?

9. What provision is there for access to the station for maintenance vehicles?

10. Where will the station rubbish & recycling bins go?

11. Trees are shown as being planted all around. As a windbreak around the south & west edges these may be good as long as they don't grow so tall as to keep out the sun. Trees along the east edge should be replaced by bushes to avoid passengers in the interchange feelng isolated.

12. How does the car park access flow? Is it wise having a car park access off the bus entry lane, knowing that the boy racers will also use it as an exit?

13. What is the cycle route corridor, and how does it link with existing town cycleways?

14.Is the pedestrian island on the A597 midway along the bus bays the best place to put it as it doesn't lead directly to the interchange? It would not be so bad if the bus bays were moved further north as para 5.

15. Will bus operators, rail user groups, cycle user groups and bus user groups be consulted on the detailed plans?

16.The bus interchange as shown has the potential to become a bleak windswept neglected area, as other similar stations across the country have become. I hope that the promise of it being self financing will ensure that steps are put in place for ongoing cleaning, maintenance and repair.

What will happen to our rubbish?

2008-03-05T05:24:00.000-08:00

The County Council are currently drawing up plans to deal with what ends up in our bins after we’ve done our recycling, because it can’t go to straight landfill anymore after 2010. They want to start some small MBT (mechanical and biological treatment) plants. When they started thinking about it they were planning for three 70,000 tonne plants, but left over waste is dropping so fast that they will now only need two 75,000 tonne plants. Well done to everyone for recycling so much..

I recently visited the plant in the South of Scotland, which is like the ones planned for Cumbria. It was an industrial unit with a yard and offices. The bin lorry dumps waste and it is moved into a large hopper and dried by pushing cool air through it (this is the biological part). Then it is moved and sorted by magnets, separation drums, sieves etc and any metals, glass etc are taken out for recycling (this is the mechanical bit.). About 45% of what remains is then used as fuel (local firms can express interest in using it), the manager of Cumbrian operations promised me he would not try to dictate to Cumbria what the content of the waste should be.

How good this is environmentally depends largely on who uses the fuel and what fuel it replaces. Keep recycling as much as you can!

Jill Perry

Allerdale Green Party's Stagecoach Campaign

2008-03-05T04:35:00.000-08:00

There is a need for a late evening bus between Maryport and Carlisle as they simply just isn't one at this moment in time.

As a result of our 'Meet Your Greens' newsletter, a number of people contacted Stagecoach with this request. They all received this standard reply...

Not to be deterred by this level of defeatism, the Allerdale Green Party's Geoff Smith put pen to paper (or his fingers to the keyboard) and replied:

Stagecoach persisted with their defeatist attitude as demonstrated in their reply below.

The Allerdale Green Party have raised a serious issue and we will keep you updated with our campaign to introduce a late service between Maryport and Carlisle.