Comment
Rochford Area Action Plan Focussed Changes: Market Square
Representation ID: 34329
Received: 07/05/2014
Respondent: Graham Stapleton
There are better options than the 2 identified.
Rochford Square is about shops and business and customers. We need more of them, not less.
We need more free parking not less.
My suggestions are:
No change to pavements and parking; 3 taxi waiting places inside the Square, none outside.
Reverse car entry and exit points (to the way they used to be).
Free parking in Square and surrounding area. Old Ship Lane car park to be free.
Restrict parking to 1hr max.
Restrict speed in central Rochford to 20mph.
Remove all the paved obstacles in North Street and make more parking places.
Yes there is.
Rochford Square is about small shops and businesses and customers. Without them, you have lost the vibrancy of the Square. It is critical, therefore, that any changes do not adversely affect them.
Action should be focused on the preservation and encouragement of small shops and businesses in Rochford Square and the immediate surrounding area. This means bringing more customers into central Rochford, not less
Shoppers need to be encouraged and this inevitably means cars must be encouraged as well. The parking needs to be adequate and it needs to be free. Back Lane is too far away and it is too expensive. I have spoken to some of the local shopkeepers - their average sales per customer are just a few pounds. Footfall is, therefore, crucial to their success.
When the paved areas of the Square were enlarged some years ago, the entry and exit points were changed. It worked perfectly well beforehand, with the cars entering opposite Barclays Bank and leaving by the Spar. The junction rarely, if ever, became congested. Ever since the change, there has been a problem with queuing and congestion at the junction. There simply is not enough queuing room.
In support of the above observations, I have occupied the same offices above NatWest Bank for the past 28 years. I observe the Square almost every day of my working life.
My suggestions are:
* Leave the pavements and parking as they are at present.
* The taxi parking is all brought within the Square.
* The current taxi parking outside the Square is scrapped.
* The car park entry is opposite Barclays Bank
* The car park exit is by the Spar.
* Parking must remain free in the Square.
* Parking in the streets immediately around the Square remain free.
* The car park in Old Ship Lane is made free.
* All parking is restricted to 1 hour (1/2 hour may be sufficient).
* Restrict speed to a maximum of 20mph around the centre of Rochford.
As a further observation, North Street has been made a mess by the construction of areas that jut out into the road. I understand that traffic needs to be slowed as it passes from South Street into North Street but the paved encroachments into the road mean that the road is blocked when buses stop at the bus stop and useful parking areas have been built on by these creations.