The Movement Working Group

Mon 23 Mar 2015, 17:21 (last edited on Mon 23 Mar 2015, 17:25)

I started this thread to encourage more general awareness and discussion of the ideas put forward by the Movement Group, not in the hopes of an invitation to join the CNF. And this means that I must thank Liz Reason for her invitation to join the group, but politely decline.

With that goal in mind, I want to come back to the question of The Poynton Street Video which is on the CNF website and which is supposed to be an example of constructive thinking that is somehow relevant to us. This is, in effect, a promotional video for the concept of "shared space" -- a phrase that appears on the Charlbury forum quite frequently, and which is also suggested as a solution to the problems of Sheep Street on the CNF page -- and also as possible solution for the Fiveways Junction. As far as I can see, this phrase is code for "Getting Rid of Pavements".

Whereas this solution might work in a highly urban environment where parking is banned, I fail to see how it is applicable to Charlbury's Sheep Street. The idealised picture of blind and disabled people walking easily between surfaces, without interruption, will only be effective if there are no cars parked in the way, and if disabled and elderly people can park near enough to get to the shops.

And, indeed, when we look further at the ideas for Sheep Street promoted on the CNF, we see "Lines of stones in the centre of the road could indicate a wider area for pedestrians ... The narrower area for vehicles could be widened in some places to provide parking spaces."

In other words, what is proposed is yet further loss of parking in the centre of town -- a solution that is hardly conducive to attracting more shoppers and visitors to the historic town centre which is, to my mind, an urgent priority.

In response to Liz's reply about whether Charlbury does indeed feel like "two towns" to those who live north of the Slade, I should say that's where I live, and I don't experience Charlbury like this. Unfortunately, I do also think some who live in the centre of town fail to think seriously about how the town appears to those who live north of the Co-op. In illustration of this, see the map included under the Visual Minutes of the Meeting of February 2014. The new (interactive) map is better, but the problems of the outer areas still privilege the problems of drivers over those of pedestrians.