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> Ideas to improve Newbury?
TallDarkAndHands...
post Jun 10 2009, 08:01 AM
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It is easy to knock WBC and there 'vision' for Newbury.
Does anyone have any good ideas to improve the town? If you were in charge what would you do? rolleyes.gif

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Darren
post Jun 10 2009, 10:31 AM
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Firstly, get out of this "it's still 1928 and this new-fangled motor won't catch on' mentality. It's 2009 and there are a lot more cars than horses and carts.

Secondly, the Market Place isn't the be all and end all of the town. Thursdays looks more like Blackbushe on a bad days than a town market.

Thirdly, stop trying to imitate places like Reading and Swindon.
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Gumbo
post Jun 10 2009, 11:20 AM
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Good topic TDH, can I suggest we avoid turning this into another bollard debate wink.gif

If it were me I would:

Improve traffic flow through Newbury - Maybe trial a switch off of the Sainsbury traffic lights as this roundabout appears to be a major bottle neck. Allow traffic through Northbrook St, the town isn't busy enough to warrant being pedestrainised and I cannot remember one single accident i.e. car hitting somebody. Also when you only have limited bridges in a town you need to utilise them all, you close off all the arteries and then eventually the road network will suffer a heart attack i.e. the A339.

Sort out the traffic issues at the retail park, maybe creating a traffic exit round the side of Currys so you have a in and a out system. Or build a pedestrain bridge over Pinchington lane and remove the traffic lights which are just clogging up traffic. I would certainly not allow any further development up there, either on the retail park or by Tesco until things were improved.

Newbury is a market town so lets have a decent market and make it a feature, quality stalls selling quality produce.......not cheap tat! Thursday can be cheap tat day but why not on a Saturday have themes e.g. Farmer's markets, German Markets, Italian Markets etc etc, this sort of thing is extremely popular and will bring people in. I have lived in Newbury all my life and never use the normal market!

Victoria park needs a revamp but not the stupid scheme currently being talked about...........total waste of money springs to mind. The park should be used to attract the people of Newbury into the town. I am not talking million pound investment, it is tweaking that is required e.g. the playground facilites are extremely popular despite being very out of date and dangerous, if investment was made in these then families would come visit in their droves (look at the new park up at Wash Common as an example) it is hideously popular. A proper all year round cafe should be bulit on top of the dump currently there, with indoor and outdoor facilities. The sports facilities should be more modern i.e. tennis courts and changing rooms for football. The gardens should be high quality and larger (Forbury Gardens in Reading is an example of how this should be done) etc etc A park is like the lungs of a town and Viccy park is in a prime spot, even more so in the near future, and needs to be better.

Kennet Centre or as it has been renamed to spice it up......Kennet Shopping unsure.gif needs to be gutted and they need to start again. What began as an ok shopping centre has now descended into the pits. If you go to other towns think Friar Street in Reading, think The Walks in Basingstoke. Too many low quality shops attracting low lifes. Yes it is ok to have some of these shops splattered around towns, they serve a purpose but to fill a whole centre with them is just stupidity. Also the unit sizes are too small and do no attract the decent shops. Gut it and start again.

That'll do for now but I will try to think of some more biggrin.gif


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Iommi
post Jun 10 2009, 11:42 AM
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QUOTE (TallDarkAndHandsome @ Jun 10 2009, 09:01 AM) *
It is easy to knock WBC and there 'vision' for Newbury. Does anyone have any good ideas to improve the town? If you were in charge what would you do? rolleyes.gif
Please define improvements?

I don't regard spending tax payers money (around £2,000,000.00) on a subsidised cinema and new road surface for the town centre as money well spent. I regret also that so much emphasis is put on commercial outlets (more shops from the Parkway/Faraday Rd project that will only mean more traffic into the town), but not so much recreational space.

Mine isn't so much what would I do, as what I wouldn't do.
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Simon
post Jun 10 2009, 01:19 PM
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QUOTE (Iommi @ Jun 10 2009, 12:42 PM) *
Please define improvements?

I don't regard spending tax payers money (around £2,000,000.00) on a subsidised cinema and new road surface for the town centre as money well spent.


I have to disagree with the cinema thing. As a Newbury taxpayer, i am really pleased they helped get us a cinema and so will many others be. i love going to the cinema and its such a pain (and extra expense) having to drive to Reading or Basingstoke.

Now I will be able to walk down there, have a nice meal at one of the new restaurants and then watch a film. Perfect

One of the things WBC have done right


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If I ruled the world.......
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Guest_Bill1_*
post Jun 10 2009, 01:36 PM
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Build a decent sized live music/alternative music club venue.

To see a decent "name" act means having to travel to London/Reading/Oxford etc and the lack of late night, if any at all, public transport to Newbury from such places makes a good gig or non-cheesey club night a whole days effort rather than a leisurely time.
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Guest_Bill1_*
post Jun 10 2009, 01:41 PM
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Encourage more vehicles, especially heavy goods freight,to use A34 Newbury bypass rather than clog up the A339.

That is what it was built for.
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Biker1
post Jun 10 2009, 03:42 PM
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Improve the area around the Canal along its whole length through the town.

We are lucky enough to have the benefit of a canal passing through the town and we don't make the most of it.

It brings visitors to the town and they want to see the best side of it not car parks and the backs of buildings.
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Biker1
post Jun 10 2009, 08:41 PM
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QUOTE (Bill1 @ Jun 10 2009, 02:41 PM) *
Encourage more vehicles, especially heavy goods freight,to use A34 Newbury bypass rather than clog up the A339.

That is what it was built for.



If it had been built on the correct side of Newbury to take in the A339 then they probably would.
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Blake
post Jun 10 2009, 11:00 PM
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We need to make the area much greener by slashing air pollution, reducing food miles and encouraging sustainable and renewable forms of local energy and lower emission transport.

What we need are plenty of wind turbines, electric vehicle charging points and free parking for electric vehicles. The trains should also be converted to run on electricity.

We live in an area teeming with farms and yet its is not easy to buy local food..why?

Furthermore, we need a genuine, concerted and sincere municipal door step recycling service. Despite WBC rhetoric, what you can recycle on the doorstep is still very limited.
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Guest_Bill1_*
post Jun 11 2009, 08:37 AM
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QUOTE (Biker1 @ Jun 10 2009, 09:41 PM) *
If it had been built on the correct side of Newbury to take in the A339 then they probably would.



Sorry Biker1, I don't understand what you mean.
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Biker1
post Jun 11 2009, 06:32 PM
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QUOTE (Bill1 @ Jun 11 2009, 09:37 AM) *
Sorry Biker1, I don't understand what you mean.



I don't want to fire up a by-pass argument here as that is old hat but what I mean is that if the by-pass had been built to the East of Newbury it would have taken in the A339 around Greenham somewhere and taken that through traffic away from the town.

Instead it was built on the financially cheapest and most environmentally destructive Western Route leaving the A339 traffic to still pass through Newbury.

I will say no more on this because, as I said, I do not want to start a by-pass argument. It is over 10 years too late! mellow.gif
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Yet Another Dave
post Jun 11 2009, 08:53 PM
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Looking at your last few posts this may not be the answer your looking for but.....

Less cars, more people walking and cycling.
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Guest_Bill1_*
post Jun 12 2009, 09:05 AM
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I understand you dont want to drag up a 10 year old issue Biker1, but isn't east of Newbury, Greenham Common, Thatcham and Cold Ash?

The A339 should now be for local traffic and the A34 bypass, from Tothill to where the 339 and 34 merge north of Donnington is for the non-local vehicles.
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hamster
post Jun 12 2009, 02:21 PM
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1. The American bridge (from Park Way to the Wharf) should be extended to two lanes and 2. a slip road put in from the Wharf to the A339 with traffic light control. The single lane slip road could go through the car park midway between the Librabry and the rear of KFC. This would improve traffic flow from one side of town to the other especially when ParkWay shopping goes live.

3. HGV's headed for A339.. specific signage should be installed on the A34 to direct them to the A339 via Tothill exit so that they avoid the town.

4. I agree with a previous poster that a slip road should be put in to Newbury Retail Park direct from the A339 South.

5. Free 15 mins of car parking across all Council Car Parks, I object to having to pay a pound to park in Eight Bells to pick up my takeaway from Bartholomew Street just becuase its after 6pm (it would be 50p before 6pm)
I also object to paying parking to drop books off at the library because they lock the quick-drop box when it is still open so you have to either park illegally on double yellows to race in to dop the books or pay 50p for 2 minutes parking.

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JeffG
post Jun 12 2009, 03:44 PM
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Bill1, afraid (for once) you seem to be missing the point. Biker1 is referring to the original A339, i.e. from the Swan roundabout towards Basingstoke. Definitely not local traffic. Have you forgotten that pre-bypass the extended A339 (from Chieveley to the Swan roundabout) used to be the A34? And Greenham/Greenham Common - don't see the distinction myself - that's the east side of Newbury as far as I'm aware smile.gif.

So traffic from the North for Basingstoke and onwards does not normally use the (western) bypass, and goes through the town itself.
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Guest_Bill1_*
post Jun 12 2009, 04:15 PM
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Jeff G

Oh I see mellow.gif

I was trying to put accross what Hamster has in one of the points in his recent post, only he's made a better job of it wink.gif
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GMR
post Jun 12 2009, 06:16 PM
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I think we need more cycle racks in Newbury. I see a lot of bikes chained to lampposts because there is no room on the cycle racks.
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dangerousbollard...
post Jun 12 2009, 08:22 PM
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Don't want to open the 'bollards' debate here but... get rid of the rising bollards.
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GMR
post Jun 14 2009, 09:34 AM
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QUOTE (dangerousbollards @ Jun 12 2009, 09:22 PM) *
Don't want to open the 'bollards' debate here but... get rid of the rising bollards.



I'll go along with that one. To be honest they are a nuisance. Obviously they are not working if we keep having the amount of accidents we do. Cars crashing on them every so often is not a good advertisement for Newbury.
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