Letter: Narrow pavements are source of Wellington's pedestrianisation problem

Since first proposing limited pedestrianisation for Wellington streets when I was chairman of the planning committee of the Urban District Council in the mid-1950s and early 1960s I have given a good deal of thought to the matter.

Market Street was a very considerable problem then as it still is. Of course businesses have changed though the market's problems are very similar. Keeping traffic from Market Street will just not work.

The proposals you are now considering have been thought about for years and rejected as impractical every time.

In my opinion they remain impractical and will cause considerable disruption to several businesses including shops and traffic, especially hire cars and taxis. We need to encourage shoppers to our town and the proposal you have before you would inhibit them.

We need to encourage our town centre businesses, not make their lives more difficult; they have enough to worry about without the council working against them.

The most basic problem of Market Street is the narrowness of the junction with Church Street/Market Square as we all know. There are two answers:

1. Knock down one of the shops

2. Eliminate the narrow pavements

May I suggest that the first of these would cause far too many problems?

The second suggestion would be very welcome indeed by both traffic and pedestrians; this is the solution I would prefer. These pavements are already causing problems as they narrow the road to vehicles and also are a menace to pedestrians.

Not only are they too narrow for prams and pushchairs but they are too narrow for elderly people. There's not room for a man with a stick, let alone a pedestrian with crutches or a walking frame.

To sum up, as one with considerable knowledge of your problem, I am quite sure that the latest proposal will simply make the situation worse and has no advantages to set against the problems it will create and that the best course will be the elimination of the narrow parts of the pavements.

I hope you will take my suggestions to mind.

George Evans, Wellington