{"id":550,"date":"2012-07-13T13:28:21","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T12:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/?p=550"},"modified":"2013-04-14T17:42:30","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T16:42:30","slug":"east-lothian-news-parking-and-the-voice-of-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/east-lothian-news-parking-and-the-voice-of-the-people\/","title":{"rendered":"East Lothian News: Parking and the Voice of the People"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Posse<\/a>
Posse of officials consulting with the weeds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the posse of official-looking individuals marched down the High Street, it was clear they were on a mission. Suits are pretty uncommon in Dunbar and it usually means official council business or a funeral. The huddle headed headlong into the Abbeylands cul de sac and peered through the fence that encloses the old garage lands, which are planned to be social housing. The suits literally bristled with hubris, jabbed their fingers with intent and then swaggered off utterly oblivious to the incongruity of their garb.<\/p>\n

What could they talking about? How to make the social housing fit more harmoniously into the Dunbar Conservation Area? I suspect not. For there is a developing view that people who need social housing are actually undeserving. They are scroungers, often disabled or who simply will not work will get their free benefits, which they spend on fags and booze. These people – who don’t work or will not work – ‘should be shot’. This extreme and distasteful view is hopefully isolated, yet points to a heightening temperature at this end of sleepy old Dunbar.<\/p>\n

No, what the good people of Dunbar apparently want is a parking lot. The historic High Street at the heart of the Dunbar Conservation Area does not need any upgrading or maintenance of its aging infrastructure. (Have the pavement and crossing cobbles ever been correctly re-set following the disastrous contract to put them there? The answer is no.) And the shops don’t need spruced up, nor tired window displays renewed. Buildings don’t need painting and repair, nor the gutters cleared. The High Street doesn’t need decent amenity plantings nor attractive seating to encourage passing tourists and shoppers to take a rest. And people certainly don’t need decent, affordable and humane housing to be provided by the Council. The free market will provide it – preferably somewhere else.<\/p>\n

The fact is if you cannot get a place to park on the High Street, it is truly inconvenient. Shoppers have to park in free car parks up to 5 minutes away. In a world that is so time poor these minutes really matter. It is the inalienable right of the burghers of Dunbar to be able to park wherever they like.<\/p>\n

The question is – who exactly is fomenting all this? The argument goes something like this. The parking facilities are so inadequate that the town is suffering. Surveys are being done which say that if free unlimited parking was provided outside each shop, people would abandon the convenience of the internet and supermarkets and flock back to our High Street. I saw one such survey taking place yesterday. Oh, it is the good people at East Lothian News were doing some vox pop. They must have interviewed at least 10 individuals outside my house, perhaps a few more – perhaps less. Not exactly a systematic survey, certainly not a stratified survey and definitely not a statistically based one. How many of your interviewees were High Street residents? I naively asked. None. Do they have a view? No answer, but it could have gone along the lines that\u00a0because you live on the High Street you are probably in housing need and your views actually don’t count. The next question was are you in agreement with social housing on the site opposite? As if these were somehow substitutable options. I am, but the question is a specious one.<\/p>\n

\"Illegal<\/a>
Illegal parking and unloading is common – could that be our problem? Here we have double-parking, a crossing blocked, a bus stop blocked.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I exaggerate of course. But here are some facts. Most of the traders I speak to are ambivalent about the need for shopper parking (but would like somewhere to park themselves) but they do understand that the reasons for difficult trading conditions are very complex and that there are no quick fixes. The last official study that looked at parking systematically found that there was an oversupply of parking for shoppers and that the existing facilities were under-utilised. They observed that residents were utilising shopper parking spaces. While they didn’t recommend addressing the issue of residents and businesses, it seems blindingly obvious what the solution is.<\/p>\n

Encouraging more cars on to the High Street in search of parking will create more congestion and is counter to local and national transport policies and will only encourage the usual passing trade. Conversely it will discourage others who feel the street is too busy, full of dirty and noisy\u00a0large lorries \u00a0unloading and simply amplify the perception that it is unsafe to cross.<\/p>\n

Which leaves only one question, who exactly were the suits and where on earth did they park?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the posse of official-looking individuals marched down the High Street, it was clear they were on a mission. Suits are pretty uncommon in Dunbar and it usually means official council business or a funeral. The huddle headed headlong into the Abbeylands cul de sac and peered through the fence that encloses the old garage … Continue reading East Lothian News: Parking and the Voice of the People<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2233,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/lost-and-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":0},"title":"Masonic Lodge Dunbar – Lost and Found","author":"templar","date":"August 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A mid 19th century 2-storey, symmetrical 3-bay building with extension to\u00a0the\u00a0side sounds very much like a workaday building of \u00a0the period, especially on Dunbar High Street, chokka with old buildings in various states of decay\u00a0on the one hand and unsympathetic modernisations and bizarre additions on the other. 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If you read the Daily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2014\/03\/poor-repairs.jpg?fit=1200%2C804&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2014\/03\/poor-repairs.jpg?fit=1200%2C804&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2014\/03\/poor-repairs.jpg?fit=1200%2C804&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2014\/03\/poor-repairs.jpg?fit=1200%2C804&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2014\/03\/poor-repairs.jpg?fit=1200%2C804&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1194,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/establish-trees-on-dunbar-high-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":2},"title":"Establish trees on Dunbar High Street","author":"templar","date":"September 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.The second best time is now.\u2019Anonymous With heaps of published evidence that trees provide multiple benefits to people and the environment, especially in urban settings you'd think our streets would be choking with them. Street trees seem to me to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2013\/09\/tree-protection.png?fit=600%2C412&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2013\/09\/tree-protection.png?fit=600%2C412&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2013\/09\/tree-protection.png?fit=600%2C412&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":990,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/petition\/","url_meta":{"origin":550,"position":3},"title":"RESIDENTIAL PARKING FOR ABBEYLANDS: KEEP THE CUL DE SAC QUIET & SAFE","author":"Barodunum","date":"August 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Petition to formalise residential parking and establish an attractive street scheme in the Abbeylands cul de sac. \u00a0Say no to a public parking lot. 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