Author: templar

passionate about the new and the old, but only if it is any good

Improve signposting and free up private car parking

Parking availability in Dunbar isn’t as bad as people make out. There are quite a few areas that are under-utilised and there are only a few problem areas. I’ve heard all the objections about the on street facilities, and frankly most of them don’t warrant a great deal of attention. You cannot park outside your favourite store at Ocean Terminal, so why would you expect to in Dunbar?

There should be policies to ensure that the car parks are the primary choices for visitors rather than the High Street itself. In fact currently it is just a bit too easy to park on the High Street, except in the middle of the day, but name me a single place on the planet where this would not be the case? Is this what people are afraid of losing – the ability to use their car as a shopping trolley/umbrella?

The problems. Some people prefer not to pay for parking at the railway station, which is understandable (but cheaper than parking in the city), so park in public spaces. Connected to this, there’s the conflict between public spaces and private spaces. And finally there’s a high concentration of people that live in town who are wholly reliant on public places. As I see it, anyone using the train is doing us all a favour, so lets not pick on them. If they park their car somewhere for 10-12 hours, that alone is a good thing. Parked cars don’t kill and they stop polluting.  Lets progress the adoption of the Station Road and free car parking at the station, and double or treble the space available there and increase the number of people using the train, which in turn should encourage companies to lay on better services. Most journeys are multi model and always involve some walking, and may include the use of the car.

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Enhance safety for pedestrians and cyclists

zebrasThere is evidence that cyclists do not feel safe on our High Street and will cycle on the pavement. Despite very high numbers of young people cycling to school very few cycle on the High Street itself. There is also increasing evidence that pedestrians do not feel that it is safe to cross the street, even at the marked pedestrian crossings – let alone the informal passing places, which have had the distinctive cobbles removed. Yet the majority of drivers do observe low speeds. Only a minority do not and go faster than is really safe to (usually when the road is clear), even if they may be complying with the speed limit.

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Ten things to improve Dunbar High Street

High Streets are Changing, but are they changing for the better?

There are literally dozens and dozens of ways to improve our High Streets and as you would expect some people have thought about this at greater length than me, so I am not going to give you an orthodox list. Some of the issues that are faced are structural and other problems deeply embedded (e.g. economic hardship), while some things still are likely to be cyclical, if you believe economic theory.

My list boils it down to a list of things that ‘we can do’. I believe we should be:

  • building some form of partnership of local business and residents
    (but this implies releasing residents from apathy/disengagement and business from small mindedness)
  • exposing the idea of place and identity, and above all experience and then developing a town brand (why should people visit our High Street if it ain’t really that great – let’s not pretend we’re better if we’re not)
  • improving the look and function of the streetscape and streetscene (people visit and return to lovely places, even if they can’t afford everything and must be able to move adequately but without making it too easy to get away)
  • examining how new entrants are attracted into the marketplace while keeping the best of the old (nudging out the worst sounds harsh, but importantly is there something we can do to attract viable new or novel businesses and business models? Aren’t there enough Pound stores and Take Aways?)
  • looking at how the street is made accessible to all (but without obsessing about the motor car – if you think parking is a problem here then you need to get out more!)
  • improving the feeling of safety and security (by which I mean safe to cross the road or cycle in the road without worrying that a car won’t stop because it is their legal right to run you over)
  • extending trading into evenings and especially w/es, while ensuring the night-time economy isn’t detrimental to residents or other users the following day (pubs, convenience stores and take-aways please note that the excesses are sorted out by tax payers money, so I won’t be favouring anything that extends the convenience format)

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