Southwold Town Council consults on bus ban (well, sort of)

A helpful twitter user has alerted me to this page copied below found on the Suffolk County Council website that was published on the 24th August (that is the Friday before the bank holiday weekend) about this consultation on the Southwold 'bus ban' that closes exactly ONE week later. Given that a great majority of bus users affected by this bus ban do not have email or internet access and they will need to compose a letter and put it in the post, I think it's quite reasonable to complain that they are not getting a fair chance to properly respond.

http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/your-council/decision-making/consultations/trial-bus-scheme-in-southwold/

Have your say on the Trial bus scheme in Southwold.

Increased traffic flow and congestion in the Market Place and High Street in Southwold has been recognised as an issue by the town council for some time, and it was felt that positive action was needed.

Following the results of a traffic survey in 2010/11, Southwold Town Council, with our support it was decided to trial a new bus scheme.

This moved the bus stop further up the High Street to outside the Kings Head pub, restricted buses from going beyond that point and so ensuring they turned around at the pump in the Market Place.

The trial was implemented in July 2011 and allowed to run for a full year to be able to properly assess what effect it would have on the town.

At no time did the temporary order ban buses or coaches from visiting Southwold, and the town has always welcomed holiday makers and day trippers.

Southwold Town Council are now seeking to capture feedback on the scheme.

In particular, comments are welcomed on these specific points:

Protection afforded by the present bus shelter Location of the bus stop at the Kings Head pub and accessibility to the shops and services in the town Ease of crossing roads to get to the bus stop Alternative coach routes Whether visibility is currently restricted for cars exiting from York Road Whether you feel that congestion in the Market Place and High Street has been eased and the atmosphere improved

All comments are welcomed and it would be useful to tell the town council how often you use the scheduled bus service.

Email townclerk@southwoldtowncouncil.com

Please include your name and a correspondence address for your comments to be considered by the Town Council.

Consultation closes 31 August 2012.

items for disposal: free to good homes

UPDATE: The disposal project ended on Monday 10th September 2012. I don't know the disposition of what was left but SCC have said to me they are grateful for my efforts to contact the many community groups who benefited. 

Note: there may be another school furniture clearance early in 2013 and they will let me know. 

Since the reorganisation of Suffolk's schools structure, a great deal of school equipment and furniture has been shipped to Halesworth for disposal, including by free distribution to Suffolk community organisations. The contact person is Joy Stodart, tel 07515 190911.

A few local organisations have been able to select items already but there is a lot of stuff and not all of it is sorted yet and there is more to come so these photos are just a flavour. If you are interested, don't delay in contacting Joy to have a look. There's far too much stuff to list but a rule of thumb: if you might find it in a school, it's probably there.

Lots and lots of stools

Lots of classic plastic chairs in all kinds of colours. Some soft furnishings too.

A particularly nice drop leaf Formica work table with embedded rule. Several other large desks like this topped in light and dark wood.

Cookers, microwaves, a few fridges.

Industrial microwave.

lunch room seating, there is lots of this.

IT of all kinds. Not shown are printers, routers, VCRs, DVD players, 

A few nice solid wood bookcases going fast. Lots of other storage shelving.

 Plenty of filing cabinets.

Lots of these shallow storage trays and rolling cabinets for them.

Gym equipment.

Large whiteboards.

Huge number of metal/formica classroom tables, many stacking kinds. Some conference tables too.

Stacks of classroom equipment for every subject.

Microscopes

(These sold wood tables were quickly snapped up)

TV & VCR on stands

Workshop benches.

Washing machine, gas stoves.

Not shown: trestle tables (for car boot?) art easels, computer tables, tennis nets,  hand tools, vacuum cleaners, gym lockers.

Stacking classroom tables of every size and system.

Evacuation chair. These retail for £1000 or more.

Half a dozen clean Venetian blinds.

 Lots of different janitorial and office supplies.

Classroom equipment and software.

Really great handcart.

Playroom bookcases?

Office chairs.

Soft chairs in many styles.

Onward Travel Posters

I might be slow to have noticed but there are some brand new travel information posters at Halesworth railway station. This was an improvement that I suggested a while ago and hopefully they will help the many bewildered travellers I encounter there. These 'Onward Travel' posters have a uniform format and are being rolled out nationally.

It looks as if the bus information is taken from the official Naptan database. Journey Solutions is mentioned on the web as being involved but the posters look very similar to a product that Suffolk's own ITOworld once showed me. They have confirmed they are a prime contractor for web-based ATOC transport info and are also involved, but have no editorial control, for the PDF version.

At Halesworth Railtrack (who own the station) have put up two new glazed A2 frames; one is by the ramp at the community bus exit on the Lowestoft platform and the other is on the fence next to the board about the history of the moving platforms at the north end of the Ipswich side. The Lowestoft side poster does get some illumination from an overhead fixture but you'll be lucky to see or read the Ipswich side at night.

National Rail onward travel info

You can download pdfs of these posters for larger towns and cities across England at www.plusbus.info but Halesworth isn't there because it isn't in the PLUSBUS scheme.

On the National Rail website you can find other local transport information about Halesworth but it's infuriating how it suggests that the DRT services Suffolk Links run every 60 minutes. This is completely false as DRT does not have a regular schedule and usually requires 24 hour advance booking within limited booking times. SCC told me this misinformation is a fault of the database. It does not reflect their claims that DRT will replace rural scheduled services efficiently.

Another issue at Halesworth is the lack of taxi numbers. For these you will have to find the poster taped in the window of the Mencap office who were constantly pestered for travel information. 

I consider the most consistently advertised taxi services in the Halesworth area are:

NEAL’S PRIVATE HIRE 01502 575888 or 0789 9011383

RODNEY FOSDIKE 01986 872829

HALESWORTH PRIVATE HIRE 01986 874028

There is also further afield:

SOUTHWOLD TAXIS 07737 139853

DARSHAM CARS 01728 668039

At the time of writing, none of these taxi operators accept concessionary Suffolk County Council travel vouchers. 

For travel planning purposes, the postcode of the station car park is IP19 8BZ.

I found this nugget about the poster project in Railfuture's magazine RAIL USER EXPRESS edition of 29 May 2011 

ONWARD TRAVEL POSTERS – you need to check the information is accurate at your station!

One outcome of the Better Stations review undertaken by Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall was the need to improve the standard of information delivery at stations across England. In respect of this, two projects have been commissioned by the “Passenger Information Strategy Group” at National Rail Enquiries to improve the standard of information delivery. The Group includes representatives from all train operators, Network Rail, National Rail Enquiries and Passenger Focus. 

The first project is "Information Zoning‟. This will see each station in England divided into four distinct “Information Zones”: (i) Welcome Zone, (ii) Ticket Zone, (iii) Train Zone and (iv) Onward Travel Zone. 

The second is to produce a consistent suite of Onward Travel Posters for display in the Onward Travel Zones. This will ensure that stations have consistent onward travel information, comprising a street map, bus info, &etc. The Onward Travel Poster project has been delivered over the last six months and is now almost complete - there are a few stations whose posters are outstanding, usually because there are major works going in the vicinity. The intention is that posters will be updated at least annually at the time of service changes. Train Operating Companies are also able to request intermediate updates during the year if required. 

An Onward Travel Poster appeared at Wool Station a few weeks ago, and a colleague in our Friends of Wool Station group alerted me to a few errors. I immediately emailed the contact address given at the foot of the poster comments@onwardtravelposters.com and the poster team kindly sent me the Wool poster as a PDF file enabling me to check it thoroughly at home. An updated poster miraculously appeared within a few days of sending in my comments. Thanks guys!
--- So the message is: check your station now and report any errors!!! ---

I think we will have to frequently. There's a scathing review of the posters in Sheffield here. None of these measures however will ever replace a genial Mr Perks.