Tuesday 23 June 2009

The crack-up






















The Town Square was designed as a pedestrian zone and laid out in brickwork and small flagstones, which were not designed to bear the weight of vehicles.

Because the Town Square has now become a highway, both for authorised and unauthorised vehicles, its surface is falling apart. The area by the children's playground is now wildly uneven and beginning to resemble an ancient Roman highway bearing the imprint of chariots, only worse. And at the Selborne Road end there are numerous loose flagstones.

























The Council has now belatedly acknowledged the problem at this location and has gone for the polka dot look:































Repairing these damaged flagstones is long overdue. But there seems little point in doing this unless the passage of heavy vehicles across the Square is going to be severely restricted. Market traders regularly use the Square as a short cut to Selborne Road - something which could be prevented by replacing the missing bollards at the High Street side.