The Murmurings of Barry Kirby

It was rather sobering on Saturday morning to be highlighting the crash on the M5 as part of the my Severn FM Traffic report.  The accident happened just around Frankley Services, in which a truck hit a coach, 22 people injured and now 2 have died.  As someone who spends a lot of time on the road with my day job, I see varying levels of driving quality, and many incidents that “just happen”.  However reading some of the reports of the accident in the following days, I am left wondering if this accident could have been avoided.

From what I have seen, the coach had broken down in lane 1 (the ‘slow’ lane) and it was really foggy.  A concerned motorist had rung the authorities via 999 about the coach, and therefore the Highways Agency had set the motorway signage to warn of the obstruction.  About 10 minutes later the smash happened.  However, I can not help but think that rather than just set the signs, could the Highways Agency and Police have got personnel out there to provide additional warnings.  Especially considering the experience of the recent accident around Taunton in similar conditions.  If a highways vehicle had been able to slow or alert drivers much earlier down the road, could this incident have been avoided?

I don’t always agree with the ‘drop of a hat’ calls for a ‘public enquiry’ but in this case, I think there is a question to be answered in terms of could more have been done by the authorities to warn motorway users.  Coupled with this, if they could have done more, why didn’t they?  What held them up?  Was it just not enough time, or not enough staff, or just too many other things to deal with?

Related articles

• Bus driver held over M5 death crash – The Independent (independent.co.uk)
• M5 horror crash: M5 bus smash driver dies in hospital – Mirror.co.uk (mirror.co.uk)

Reading yesterdays paper (at about 11pm when I had finally finished my day) I was rather buoyed up to see detailed a “fighting fund” from the City Council to make the Gloucester City Centre more attractive and welcoming.  We have finally realised that we lose so much custom to Cheltenham, Bristol and Worcester and a lot of that is down to the users experience of their visit to our city.  Finally we will see some improvements to the “brutal” (to use the Citizens term) architecture and appearance.  Will the populace be able to “Believe in Gloucester”?

The city council has produced a list of 12 items of what they want to tackle, and I agree with almost all of it.  However I do hope that the list is not in order of priority and that it is only the start of a progressive regeneration, using finance as and when it becomes available to sort out more and more of the City areas.

The list is as follows (with my comments in Blue):

1. Cheaper car parking – lower tariffs have already been introduced at 11 council-owned sites

Essential to make our City Centre accessible – I would hope that the lower prices already introduced are only the beginning

2. New lighting, markings and flooring at King’s Walk, Longsmith Street and Station Road car parks

A good idea, though not necessarily a high priority until September/October time?

3. Extend the business grant scheme – at the moment new traders can ask for £3,000 towards their first year’s rent to open up in Gloucester; cash grants are now likely to be increased

A great idea, SME’s are essential to sustain the City Centre, however would like to see Business Support alongside the grant (maybe a compulsory interview with Gloucester Works) to encourage long-term viability.

4. A new campaign called ‘Shop Gloucester’ – this will be an advertising campaign to encourage people to shop here

As long as this is also pushed outside Gloucester, then that’s good.

5. City Museum upgrade – the glass displays on the second floor will be replaced

Yes, good, but perhaps a lower priority int he short-term.  I think the City Museum is great, but perhaps look for commercial funding/sponsorship?

6. New Tourist Information Centre – the current “rather small and cramped” facility in Southgate Street will be closed down, with staff looking at relocating to a “more central” unit

Good news, though unless your taking over a shop right on the cross, I wonder where would be more central.  (Maybe it will take over the tacky cheap shop right on the corner)

7. Better Christmas lights and decorations – they will also be in place for longer to increase the feel-good factor during December

PLace them for longer, absolutely, though I don;t think replacing the lights yet is necessary, but adding to them would be good.

8. Better lighting in the city centre – focus on the gate streets

Yes and No, yes to better lighting, but the gate streets are not where the action is in the evening, first priority should be where the Pubs are (more the tail end of the gate streets, rather than the cross).

9. New cladding on “brutal” old city centre buildings – this could include public art, and will done under negotiation with the owners

Very good idea, especially if it embraces the culture and heritage of Gloucester.

10. New mirror at the Eastgate Viewing Chamber – this will be a “large street mirror” allowing shoppers to peer down into it

Not entirely sure what this is and how it would work, so will await more information.

11. Signs and street banners pointing out points of interest – a fund will be created for this, aiming to highlight anything from a historic cafe to an upcoming city event

Yes, however think about approaching businesses to sponsor the signs, take away some of the burden off the tax payer and use the opportunity to engage with the business owners.

12. New paving in the gate streets – this will focus on improving the appearance of a “prestige” area

Is this a real priority?  I would review what happened in Southgate Street and while it looks brilliant, the disruption was very high, must learn from this and have an intelligent plan for implementation.

Personally I think the moves the City Council are making to really showcase the City are very encouraging, we need to do this to make the city an economic success and while it is a careful balance, we need to engage and support local businesses, which in turn will see more cash flow into the city which generates better tax revenues which allows a greater standard of services and amenities.  And this is a great step.

It seems that the City Council are practicing what they are preaching, “Believe in Gloucester”- If this is the beginning, then the next few years will be fantastic.

Related articles

• New Parking Charges in Gloucester – Bold move (barrykirby.co.uk)

Reading the excitement about the Governments new scheme to enable homebuyers to have a 95% or even 100% mortgages shows just how eager people are to see the housing market get reinvigorated and that the trades of building etc could really invigorate the economy.  However, I have an alarm bell going off in my head, haven’t we been here before?  How did we get into this economic crisis in the first place?

We must remember that we got into this mess initially due to dodgy lending in the housing market.  Subsequently we have been chastised by the Government for having too much personal debt. 

So is this really a good thing, or are we just going to fall back to where we were?

A good while ago I contacted Virgin Media with a view to encouraging them to put in the cable infrastructure in Kingsway, my logic being that if they worked with QUVL and the builders that they could get the cable in before the roads were adopted, and would be cheaper in the long-term for installation.  It would also provide residents with having a real choice of provider for Broadband, Phone and TV.  Having been a previous (and happy) Virgin Cable customer before I moved, I thought it would be a good thing for them as a business and us as residents.

However, after a lot of nagging and following up, they evaluated the idea and I was told that they were not going to lay cable at that time because it did not fit their current model.  The topic has come up again with residents on the Kingsway Blog (www.kingsway-villagers.co.uk) and so we got it in the local press and was also pleasantly surprised to see it go a bit further as articles have appeared on USwitch  and ISPreview also highlighting the issue.

In my experience, nothing helps a business case more than having hard facts and figures, and in this case, to be able to present Virgin with a list of people who support the idea would help enormously, so to that end I have created an online petition.  If you have 2 minutes, please click the link and sign up, the more support we get, the more chance of Virgin Media seeing that there is a viable business case in Kingsway.

Click here : http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/kingsway-wants-cable/

Also share the link. But don’t worry about the screen asking for donations at the end, that is not compulsory at all!

 

The General Secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey, has said that the Olympics could be targeted as an oppotunity for strikes and general Civil Disobedience.  While I agree that the right to strike is important and the strikes to date have done a great deal to highlight how people feel, I do think this call is out-of-order and Mr McCluskey should really evaluate his own statements and at the very least withdraw them, if not apologise for trying to scaremonger around what should be a proud event showcasing the ‘Best of British’.

We should be attacking the reforms that are being pus

hed through such as the dismantling of the NHS, the funding issues within our schools, the way the Economy is floundering, the lack of support for SME’s – there are so many issues out there that people should not be spending time threatening what are the few good things that are going on!

I was pleased to see all parties distancing themselves from his statement, as well as other unions, and rightly so.   I think that London hosting the Olympics is a great opportunity and really should not be used as a political football.  He is entitled to his opinion, but I hope next time he decides to make a statement like this, he thinks through the ramifications before he speaks (or as my dad says “engage brain before engaging mouth”).