Belper News - Bus ban vision to boost town centre

Bus ban vision to boost town centre

This is the front page headline of the Belper News published last Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015 with a sub-heading stating, "Council idea to improve access and make King Street area more vibrant for shoppers".

You will not find this article on the Belper News website so once the July 22nd edition has been consigned to the recycling bins this journalistic gem will be but a feint memory. BelperStuff takes no pleasure in returning once again to the ban the buses from King Street issue but this Belper News article just has to be brought to more prominent attention.

The first thing to notice is that the hapless reporter, Dan Hobson, has managed to interview Belper Councilor Dan Ward. Looking at the Belper Town Council website there is no person of that name listed. The first rule of journalism is to get the names right. The reporter must have made a mistake and BelperStuff assumes that he was actually speaking with the only Dan on the council that we can find, the Mayor, Dan Booth though it could be somebody else.

(Edit: 29/07/15 - Belper News have now added the article to their website and corrected the councilor's name. It is indeed Dan Booth: Belper News article online)

Moving on to the content of the article we find that the mystery councilor stated:

• ".. ...... displays are spilling onto the pavement. At some points, this is making it difficult for disabled people, mother's (that is the Belper News use of the apostrophe) with prams, and so on, to pass safely and easily along the pavement. We don't want to discourage businesses in the high street and we don't want to deter disabled people, or parents with prams, from coming either".

Belper King Street - Saturday mid-day 25th July 2015 highlighting access problems with shoppers desperately searching for a more vibrant shopping experience.

• "It's just an idea, which may not be feasible. But we're interested to find out more".

BelperStuff can be of help here, try looking up Belper King Street on the Belper News website and you will find this article from October 2008: Local anger over plans to pedestrianise King Street.

The Belper News article (that's from last Wednesday's edition) then goes on:

• It was suggested (we presume by the mysterious councilor) that buses which stop at the middle of King Street would collect people from the bottom of the street if the changes were introduced.

Lower end of King Street - a few minutes after mid-day, Saturday 25th July 2015. The town council believes that it is possible for more buses to use this bus stop. 

There are a number of the current crop of Tory Town Councillors who were around in 2008; in fact the proposer of this scheme has been a prominent member since well before the Tories took control in 2003. Can they not cast their minds back to previous investigations or have they suffered a collective loss of memory. It is as obvious now as it was obvious back in 2008 that the only alternative for buses stopping in the middle of King Street is the bus garage on Chapel Street. This is the real vision of the town council ................ shoppers who have been lucky enough to experience the new, vibrant shopping experience will then have to struggle with their laden bags to the bus garage to be confronted with this:

Commercial artist's impression of Mr Potato Head on Trent Barton Bus Garage
specially commissioned by BelperStuff (© Ariel Nagar)

BelperStuff had hoped to move on to reality by looking into the real danger of government cuts and the damage they will do to Derbyshire bus services. We will turn to this in the next bus post.