Letter published in The Herald, Plymouth on 20th June 2007 regarding the continuing saga of the missing bridge and other matters. Signed as area Transport 2000 coordinator.
Dear Sir
The letter from John Abraham about being prevented from carrying a folding bicycle down Old Town Street where the Drake Circus centre has been allowed to block the public right of way highlights a scandal in Plymouth City Council.
The original Section 106 restrictions on the development ensured that the Old Town Street right of way was protected; the shops were to have individual shutters and 24-hour access on the easiest, safest, shortest and most well used pedestrian link between the University, North Hill and the Barbican area was to be preserved.
It is outrageous that the developers were allowed to block off the road, and is symptomatic of the way Plymouth fails at every turn to provide for the real needs of ordinary people walking through, living in and using the city.
It is now 12 months since the railway station was severed from its most popular bus stop by the accidental destruction of the footbridge and STILL nothing has been done to make it possible for people arriving by train to change on to a local bus.
It is now more than six months since Drake Circus opened and the full extent of the attempt by the council to cut off those on the university campus from access to the city centre was revealed. Miraculously, there has not yet been a serious accident as pedestrians dice with death negotiating the massively car-biased crossing lights - half of which do not even have little green men opposite to advise you when to cross.
Since it was a Labour administration that failed to meet pedestrians' needs, we hardly hold out any hope that the new regime will be less car-friendly. Perhaps the time has come for some serious direct action in Cobourg Street, Saltash Road and Old Town Street.
ROGER CREAGH-OSBORNE
Cornwall and Devon Transport 2000
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