A LOCAL resident is appealing to the town council to reverse its decision to remove the safety railings on the junction of Cork Street and Market Place.
The railings are to be removed and replaced with bollards as part of ‘phase 2’ of the council’s Market Place improvement project, which received planning permission from Mendip District Council in June last year.
Despite the council’s claims that the railings will be replaced by ‘carefully positioned bollards that are designed to protect pedestrians on the pavement’, Cork Street resident and retired supervising design and layout engineer, Doug Insall, says that the bollards will allow pedestrians to ‘ignore’ designated crossing points, putting themselves in danger.
Doug told Frome Times, “Have you ever wondered why the safety railings were placed at the junction of the Market Place and Cork Street? History shows that two lorries came down Bath Street, went out-of-control and crashed into the George Hotel. The first time in 1918 was attributed to a greasy road and killed one man and although MOT vehicle testing was introduced in 1960, it happened again in 1968. This time no-one died, but a baby in a pram was temporarily trapped in the wreckage. Similar incidents have happened all over the UK and who can forget the hauntingly beautiful face of four year old Mitzi who, together with three men, died in Bath on the 9th February 2015 after a tipper truck went out-of-control on a hill in Bath.
“So what reasons have Frome Town Council (FTC) got to remove the railings? There is a general desire to de-clutter, but the FTC claimed, ‘This is to aid in the movement of pedestrians within the general area and remove the risk of pedestrians becoming caught on the carriageway side of the railings during traffic movements’.
“How can you solve a problem, by making it easier for even more lazy pedestrians to put themselves at risk? To remove the railings, will effectively give pedestrians the freedom to ignore the safe haven of the zebra crossing in Cork Street, cut the corner or simply wander over to the Boyle Cross area using additional desire lines while ignoring a designated crossing point.
“Vehicles exiting Cork Street tend to accelerate to dovetail into the Market Place traffic flow when observing a gap, as they also do when entering Cork Street, increasing the risk element to those pedestrians wandering between the bollards. Should a serious injury or worse be the result, then the FTC would be totally responsible, not the pedestrian! This very busy junction will get even busier due to the predicted Frome population increase of 25% by 2028. This is one of the main reasons for the Frome town centre improvements.
“Yes, strategically placed bollards will protect the buildings, but will not protect pedestrians from themselves!
“The Neighbourhood Plan for Frome claimed that local residents and businesses could have a greater say in the development of the town. The resulting public comments were 4:1 in favour of keeping the railings, so why ask for comments and then ignore them?
“If the FTC ignore the safety issues and remove the railings, I hope they store them securely ready for resurrection at some later date. Apart from the overall safety with railings in place, driving out of Cork Street is less stressful for drivers who only have to concentrate on pedestrians using the zebra crossing and dove-tailing into the Market Place traffic flow. The railings also offer a reduced construction cost, somewhere to lean and observe, plus displaying planters helping to absorb nasty gases in the atmosphere and not forgetting – perfectly displaying dear old St Aldhelms.”
In response, Peter Wheelhouse, Frome Town Council’s economic development & regeneration manager said, “The removal of the railings is designed to improve pedestrian movement in the Market Place area which the railings currently constrain. Their removal is also designed to avoid pedestrians getting trapped between the railings and emerging traffic where they choose to walk in the road. Received wisdom on highway design in town centres is that provided that there are other safety features (in this case the strategic positioning of bollards), railings are now considered to be unnecessary in areas where traffic speeds are low. This is the case in the Market Place. Our proposals have been subject to careful consideration by the county council as highway authority and they support them.”
The timings of the works to remove the railings and the other Market Place improvements are still to be confirmed with some technical and legal details to be finalised, but the council has assured residents and businesses that they will provide plenty of notice.
