BROAD Street has been closed to through traffic and residents have been searching out their alarm clocks. No longer are we woken before dawn by heavy lorries, many of which are taller than our houses and thunder past our windows and shake and damage our p
BROAD Street has been closed to through traffic and residents have been searching out their alarm clocks. No longer are we woken before dawn by heavy lorries, many of which are taller than our houses and thunder past our windows and shake and damage our properties.
No more early risers speeding past on their way to the bypass and the constant noise and fumes from the traffic have disappeared.
No more boy racers screaming past in the middle of the night and those pushing prams find the pavements unobstructed by parked cars. It is, albeit temporarily, pure bliss.
Unfortunately, our gain is inevitably someone else's pain and roads throughout the city will be experiencing the consequences of the closure of Broad Street.
Why should Nutholt Lane and Cambridge Road, for example, suffer from uncontrolled motor traffic? Why should vehicles be permitted to rumble past within five yards of the west door of the cathedral? I moved to Broad Street in the 1980s, and since then the volume of traffic has at least trebled. Why has there been no serious attempt by the district and county councils to manage that increase?
The proposed new car park at Angel Drove seems an appropriate response to the problems of parking. We need to support and nurture Ely's independent shops by making it easy for customers to drive to the city while at the same time discouraging motor traffic in the town centre. The park-and-ride system will surely help to do this and it is encouraging to see that it has the support of the Ely Traders' Association.
What Ely urgently needs is a proper traffic management plan. The consequences of doing nothing will inevitably lead to the city of which we are all so proud losing its charm, individuality, and economic viability as a market town.
RW GARDNER
Broad Street
Ely
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