To respond to your current engagement on the HAZ Placemaking proposals in the Market Place, North Walsham Town Council has engaged with the residents and the traders and users of the town centre, through ad-hoc surveys and in a public meeting on 12th October. We have also monitored comments on this on social media.
Whilst we are supportive of the project as a whole, we have four key issues that concern us as described below.
- We understand that as part of this project permanent free one hour parking spaces will be provided in Bank Loke car park to replace spaces lost in the Market Place. We would also like to see a number of permanent free one hour parking spaces provided in Vicarage Street car park for the benefit of motorists who arrive to that side of the town centre.
- The use of Kings Arms Street by pedestrians is currently dangerous, with no clear safe route for pedestrians. The footways are narrow and discontinuous along its length. Alongside the wider HAZ project, a continuous footpath should be constructed along Kings Arms Street, The carriageway is currently wider than is required for a single lane, and so can be reduced to provide space for footway widening. This work should be carried out in advance of construction work beginning in the Market Place; or failing this, some temporary road markings (such as hatched edge strips) or other safety measures introduced, to improve the safety of pedestrians.
- We have concerns at the impact on air quality in Kings Arms Street when it becomes a busy route seven days a week, rather than Thursdays only. We suggest that monitoring should be carried out over several weeks to compare the Thursday and other day levels.
- We strongly recommend that access for deliveries to businesses should be available at ALL times, i.e. including during the daytime closure periods. The volume of these is not great and so would not cause significant nuisance to pedestrians or to the quiet use of the Market Place, but the beneficial impact of permitting daytime delivery would be huge on our traders. The delivery bays should have time limits displayed to ensure that they are always available for delivery vehicles
Garry Bull