Dunbar, well Belhaven actually, is world famous for its Bridge to Nowhere. Now there are plans for a Road to Nowhere. Just weeks after we heard that the Abbey Church is once again on the market, with any prospect of much needed sensitively designed housing development being stymied, we hear that another council department have been tasked with creating another killer attraction for Dunbar … yes, wait for it a car park. The road to Abbeylands, a quiet cul de sac, is to be Dunbar’s new Road to Nowhere.
There is a fatal and incomprehensible attraction among our town planners and policy makers to the discredited policy of “predict and provide”. There is a particular obsession with providing even more space for cars, when their own policies suggest they should do otherwise and national policies are basically saying “reduce car dependency”. We all need the bloody exercise as its our arteries getting congested not the roads, even if we couldn’t give a monkeys about the planet. North Berwick is a case in point, where consultants get hired not to advise on the best way of managing the parking problem, but to identify the best place to provide additional parking. This is not just barking it is insane. Dunbar is not a major holiday destination, not yet, as the accommodation and attractions don’t quite cut it.
There’s no need for extra parking at Abbeylands, it will simply encourage more traffic to circulate on the High Street rather than use the existing (badly signposted) facilities, only then to navigate down the cul de sac to find it full and reverse out. Motorists and lorry drivers (the coop and post office and their customers are the worst offenders) already perform bizzarre antics in and around this this junction, so safety is bound to decrease. I cannot think of a more ridiculous location. But have they even asked residents what they think and how their needs are being met? Of course they haven’t.
So where is the evidence of parking demand? The Buchanan report, the last systematic study put it quite simply. Available parking is underutilised at most times of the day. There it is – no evidence – case closed. Though they do imply a potential problem with High Street residents, for whom there is no provision whatsoever, but are silent on what should be done (who cares – people who stay on the High Street are mostly lazy benefit scroungers).
The council recently consulted on whether parking times might be increased on Dunbar High Street. They get some points for bothering to consult, for they told me they didn’t really have to until they proposed the order itself (which in most cases is a fait accomplis). The basic council proposal sounds sensible. Question is what is the expected impact of an increase in the parking time from 60 to 90 minutes? The theory goes that if turnover of cars is too low, you should decrease the parking time or introduce measures such as charges to increase turnover. If the turnover is high – which it currently is – you can get away with increasing the stay time. So basically, unless there is evidence to the contrary, the council were content only a few months ago that turnover was already sufficiently high, and basically they agreed with the somewhat dated Buchanan report.
What has changed? Well, some traders have complained no doubt – but I’ve never met a profession that didn’t – and there’s a bunch of renegade motorheads who really should know better, but that really is about it. The evidence of a shortage is not even circumstantial, it is barely a collection of anecdote and hearsay, more like muddled thinking. Can this be what swayed the council? What happened to evidence based policy making? What indeed happened to the Draft Local Transport Strategy objectives? What happened to the coalition agreement, which restated those same strategy objectives in the recitals published under “Growing our Communities” barely a year ago?[1. It recognises that a sensible transport strategy is not simply about choosing between and developing different modes of travel but must also consider ways of reducing the overall need for travel. ]
It’s pathetic really. But there’s a rump of lazy people who will not engage their brain. There’s others still, who think it is their god given right to park right outside their bank, in the westport turning circle, the disabled bay, the bus stop, double park outside the post office or the posting box or the co-op, leave their engine running and run a few short errands while they’re at it, but are off 5 to 10 minutes later. They will park in junctions or in the middle of the street, or really inconveniently on the pedestrian passing places. Sure, these people are a small minority – you know the plain selfish morons, who have no consideration either for the public realm and even less for real people who inhabit and keep our High Street alive. But there’s enough of them to spoil it for the majority. It is also understandable that many don’t want to hang around. There’s not much to do or to spend your money on in Dunbar, as the number of “have a go” businesses continues to rise and the quality of the Dunbar offer has basically stalled. Any wonder the internet is so popular.
But why not address some of the structural issues instead? I’ve said it before that traders can do more for themselves and that we should be focusing improving the overall Dunbar experience. Credit to those who are trying to do this, e.g. Alistair Cook and Susie Goodwin stand out (Northlight Arts) and the new Civic Week team (Sue Anderson) and the Shore and Harbour group (Pippa Swan) come to mind. These people and many more besides are working with some of Dunbar’s natural assets and getting value out of them. When people write their trip advisor reviews they don’t whine about poor parking, they can see for themselves why parking is easy and free. They are more likely to say ‘charming town’, but ‘down at heel’, and ‘no much to do’. So let’s build on Dunbar’s natural assets.
The High Street is cluttered with too many cars and needs an cosmetic uplift on the one hand and a pedestrian and cycle safety audit on the other.
Let’s put in place some low tech measures to make it safer and easier to cross anywhere along the High Street. Not pelicans and not belishas. It is now difficult even for grown ups to cross even though the street is barely ever busy, because (lazily) parked cars obstruct and obscure sightlines. Lets make it friendly for cyclists too. Dunbar has a ridiculously high cycle/scoot to school rate, but very few are confident enough to cycle on the streets or in the town center.
We should remove the ugly barrels and boxy bins, which masquerade as planters. They’ve had it and our efforts at community planting are frankly unimaginative and dull compared to our neighbours down the road.
We should plant decent specimen trees at intervals to soften and create interest and new views – I would happily pay for one. There’s heaps of evidence that trees are really good for towns.
We should repair and reinstate the cobbles and, importantly, keep our streets squeaky clean (pubs and takeaways take note). We should provide cigarette litter bins, as the unhealthy burghers of dunbar love their fags but contribute disproportionately to a litter problem.
And finally lets put in place formal resident parking strictly for the people who live on the High Street – there lots of them and I’ve already collected well over 60 signatures from my immediate neighbours in support, and I have not even started canvassing further afield. Furthermore, I would wager that High Street residents contribute a lot lot more to the local economy than the people who drive.
As for the Road to Nowhere, let’s leave Abbeylands to the butterflies and the bees. It has been a fantastic year for them.
In time lets make it into a community space or garden, or if we really need to recoup the money lost – sell it to a developer for a sensitive private housing scheme.
A while we are at it let’s have a “politician free zone”, and have less backroom meddling.