Stuart the Greengrocer has a letter in this week's B&R. He was very unhappy that Castle Street was closed for the recent Transition Towns fun day. Very unhappy indeed. He's talking about wanting compensation for his loss of trading earnings.
Now, when the fun day was going on, Powys County Council sent along a street cleaning wagon that runs on electricity to display for the day. Stuart saw this, and leapt to the bizarre conclusion that Hay Transition Towns group had bought this vehicle and presented it to the Council as a bribe to get them to shut the road!
Hay Transition Towns group are all volunteers - they don't have that sort of money - and they don't need to bribe the council anyway. Anyone can apply to close a street and as long as they meet the right criteria, it is done. I remember Bredwardine Bridge being closed for several days for the filming of Dandelion Dead, for instance.
Stuart did make one reasonable point - although there was a diversion sign at the top of Castle Street, there was no sign or banner saying why the road was closed. If Transition Towns want to do something similar again, they probably should think about having a big banner to put up.
A second point, which I've heard elsewhere, is that the street was not really well used during the fun day. Isis cafe had tables and chairs out, and the Outdoor Pursuits shop had their canoes outside, but there wasn't a lot else to justify closing the road.
Mind you, Stuart also complains that traders on Castle Street were not consulted. This is not true - I was at the Transition Towns meeting where one of the members said he had been round all the shop keepers and he told the meeting how many of them had agreed with the plan, how many had opposed it, and how many were ambivalent, together with the arguements he'd used to bring them round to his way of thinking.
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6 comments:
Sorry Eigon but you are obviously biased about this. I walked up and down Castle Street during the Transition Towns closure and there was hardly anyone about in Castle Street, far less than a normal Saturday. No wonder Stuart is complaining.
I fail to see why the Transition Towns people needed to close the whole street, surely the Butter market and Castle square would have been quite enough for their activities. Many other organisations have used the square over the years for events and found no need to close the whole street.
From what I’ve heard around town Transition Towns did not exactly endear themselves to a lot of Hay traders by closing Castle Street.
I must admit, I can't see why the entire street was closed. Memorial and Butter Market would have been plenty.
Well, I did mention above the objection that the road wasn't very well used on the day.
Looking back to the meeting that I wrote about on 27th July, the chap who had been round the shops on Castle Street reported that 4 were positive about the idea, one was "negative neutral" (he wanted to object but couldn't really find a good reason) and one was "over my dead body". He was going to see the rest of the shopkeepers later, and I didn't go to any further meetings to see what the results were.
I wonder did they close the street to try and push their agenda on less car use, climate change etc?
I must admit it did appear to be a bit of a washout. Not much of a Fun Day at all, and I didn't see the point of Castle Street being closed. I had been expecting to see lots going on in the middle of the street but a canoe and a gazebo doesn't really constitute a fun day. I can see Stuart's point.
And this week there's an answering letter in the B&R from Tim Organ, one of the organisers, saying that he did, personally, consult everyone in Castle Street (except a lady who lives to the rear, who he didn't know about) and he says that, talking to shopkeepers after the event, no-one complained to him about loss of trade.
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