Carswell Concerns
John D Carswell - January 2005
Bins - The restored Kings Fountain in the Palace Courtyard is
wonderful, indeed breathtaking, and I hope you will have gone up to have a look
at what Historic Scotland has done. What is also breathtaking but in
another way, is the approach to the Palace with a yellow plastic grit bin and
eight plastic wheelie bins, not to mention the litter in the Kirkgate.
And talking of bins, we all know Thursday is bin day in the High Street.
Several Thursdays recently were very windy so that bins were overturned and
there was litter/rubbish everywhere. I would make the following points:
- Bins should always have their lids properly closed
- Does everyone leave the tops off their empty containers so that the
containers will compress?
- Why do so many lazy/thoughtless/selfish people insist on parking outside
the Post Office and the Oliphant/Anderson chicane so that the bin men cannot
do their job properly? Why should other people have to wait?
Roundabouts - I like roundabouts (rather than traffic lights) because
they are flexible, have no mechanical aids, slow the traffic down and can be
landscaped. The roundabout at West Port works fairly well so why do we have
traffic lights at Mill Road and Sainsbury and have a third lane at the ends of
Springfield Road when there seems plenty of room for a roundabout at all these
locations?
Town Buses - Several developments in the town are dependent on
contributions to the transport system in the town: how is the money to be used?
The present service runs every half hour from 9.00am to 6.00pm in a figure of
eight and costs 80p, unless you have a pass, and few use it. What I want is a
cashless, more frequent service that serves more parts of the town and runs from
7.00am to 11.00pm with buses that have fewer seats and more standing room etc. I
hope the service would be well advertised and no one would dream of taking their
car to the station or on the school run! We should forget more parking in the
town, and therefore more traffic, and have extra parking on the outskirts linked
to the bus service. Perhaps one day there could be a relief road to the north of
the town and we would only let buses through at the Cross!
As we start the year 2005 there seems to be litter everywhere, cars parked
everywhere and developments or proposed developments everywhere that are not
going to enhance the town: is there not some one or some organisation that will
take the town by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shake?
Happy New Year!
John D Carswell - january 2005
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