The Parish Council recently sent out a questionnaire to the community. The key priorities and concerns of residents and business owners form an important part in the development of the plan to improve Minchinhampton Town Centre.
Just under 250 completed questionnaires were returned and, although this is a relatively small proportion of the total, it is still large enough to draw conclusions especially given the consistency of the responses.
The main results of the survey were:
1. Not surprisingly the key issue is parking especially in the High Street and Bell Lane.
2. This was then followed closely by making more space for pedestrians in the town centre either through widening or extending pedestrian areas.
3. Other traffic calming and safety measures were of lower priority because opinions were split on the need for such measures.
4. Following the top priorities of parking and pedestrian space, the next most important were firstly safety in Bell Lane through lighting and extended pavement, and secondly the redevelopment of soon to be former Surgery site.
The individual comments made by residents and business owners were mostly a reflection of the issues found in the main body of the questionnaire. There were some comments and suggestions that may provide further opportunities and these will be considered as part of the plan. One example was to establish if HGVs could be excluded from the town centre.
It has been some time since the Neighbourhood Development Plan but the impact of the pandemic and funding have been delaying factors. However several of the issues raised in the questionnaire and NDP are already being addressed such as:
• Resurfacing and notice boards
• Speed limit reductions – the Parish Council has also been working on this for some 5 years and is hopeful of some progress on this in the near future.
• Plans have also been drawn up for low level lighting in Bell Lane and grants are being sought.
• The Parish Council is in negotiation to purchase the surgery site
• The significant investments made in the youth of the parish should also be noted with playground refurbishment and funding for the youth club
The next stage in this process is to draw up plans and options for consultation with residents and business owners. It is anticipated that these will be available in late Spring to early Summer 2025.
On 19th December there was a 7.30pm concert at the church but the High Street became totally blocked shiortly after 7pm with a total logjam of cars at the bottom of the Highstreet to the extent that through traffic from Tebury Street to WestEnd could not move and it was not possible to turn from West End onto the Highstreet. Eventually having done so I let my wife out of the car near Amalfi to walk and seek place at the Church hoping to catch up by turning into Bell Lane and the Common carpark. This was not possible because the Fire Service/Hampton Probus(?) had not left access open into Bell Lane. I eventually found parking at the top of Butt Street opposite the post box! Minchlife had no mention of the Fireservice Charity event and they, in turn, seemed
unaware that there would be traffic for the concert. Obviously I was not alone in facing this problem which had also happened previously when crowds were blocking access to Bell Lane on Advent Sunday evening for the Switch on and suffered abuse and knocking on my car for trying to turn into Bell Lane. There needs to be a Police presence or some form of warden when two events in close proximity and timing clashes.
Obviously the answer is to walk to events but that is not always physially possible for everyone.
Dear Nick,
Sorry I have only just seen your comment. Sorry you were inconvenienced. MinchLife were not notified of the Father Christmas event and actually the day changed from the day before as the weather was so bad. We will try to get advance notice next year. As to the switching on of the lights we attracted many more people than expected but we will learn from this experience.
Anne