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Danni Segal,
Needing more sleep
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The (ir)regular thoughts of Around-Bexhill.co.uk
founder, Danni Segal, on life in Bexhill-on-Sea
This column reflects the thoughts of Danni Segal, and does not
claim to reflect the opinions of around-bexhill.co.uk or any of
the shops or businesses listed on this site unless directly stated
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Dateline: October 2007
Item: The Thin Yellow Line
The new, bumper-sized Highway Code book has just been launched and in the spirit of marking this great event I’m going to start this month’s column with a little quiz.
According to the Highway Code, what does the following on the side of a road mean?
- disabled parking
- short term parking
- long term parking providing there are no traffic wardens
- loading bay
- residents-only parking
 Okay, quiz over, now to check your answer. The Highway Code says the following: “No waiting during times shown on sign”*1, which means none of the above are actually correct. According to the sign shown on the left, there is now waiting between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
So why am I asking this question? The answer, in two words, is Western Road. Western Road in Bexhill town centre is a one-way road running from west to east; on the left are parking bays, on the right is a single yellow line. From this we can deduce that parking is permitted within the bays on the left but no parking is allowed on the right during the hours of 9am and 6pm.
Of course, anyone who has been down Western Road between 9am and 6pm will tell you that this is blatantly not the case. So already we see a problem forming.
Now a second matter: if cars are parked on both sides of the road then Western Road becomes very much a single lane. If a lorry has to make a delivery to one of the shops on Western Road, then it has to stop in the middle of the road and hold up traffic. Having been delayed twice in recent weeks for nearly 15 minutes while the Co-op lorry unloads I can attest to how annoying this is. Incidentally, this is not an attack on Co-op, it just happens that it was their delivery that delayed me on both occasions. Having spoken to a number of businesses along Western Road, the issues of deliveries is a constant thorn in their sides and creates additional problems they could do without.
So there is the problem. What is the solution? Well, strange as it may seem there is a very inexpensive solution to both these problems, and it goes as follows:
Replace the single yellow line on the right side of Western Road with disabled parking bays and a couple of loading bays.
Therefor cars displaying a disabled badge have a ready place to park in the centre of town, and vans/lorries making deliveries can do so without holding up the traffic. Anyone parking on the right of the road illegally can not claim ignorance as a defence as they would have clearly parked in violation of the rules.
And all it would cost is some white paint and a handful of metal sign - a fraction of the cost of transforming Devonshire Square into a slab of concrete, and something of far greater value to the local economy as well.
Item: Two’s Company
Whilst chatting with a friend recently I mentioned that Black Pearl Tattoo had moved into the town centre from their former location on London Road, and was greated by the question “Do we really need two tattoo places in town?”, the other of course being Ink Buzz.
I countered this question with a question: do we need more then one bank in the town, or one hairdresser, or one of anything for that matter? When I put it in those terms the question was withdrawn.
Maybe I am a bit of an idealist, but to me the concept of choice is an important one. If a shopping area has only one shop of a type and a potential customer doesn’t like the shop or cannot find waht they want, the chances are they will view the shopping area negatively. If they have a choice of shops the chance of them finding exactly what they want increases, and so does the chance of them wanting to return to the area.
And, after all, the more good shops, businesses, restaurants and cafes we have, the more people will want to shop with us. And in that way, everyone benefits.
Until next time,
Danni Segal
founder
around-bexhill.co.uk
Read past Bexhill Thoughts columns in the Archive
*1 http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/Signsandmarkings/index.htm
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