The plans to enforce the pedestrianisation of Spalding town centre does not include implementing barriers, but the councillor who has pushed for it says he’s ‘hopeful’ it will still be effective.
But the long mooted barriers to stop vehicles coming through Market Place and Hall Place from 10am to 4pm were not mentioned.
Now Lincolnshire County Council has said there won’t be barriers.
A TRO banning traffic from 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday has actually been in place for a number of years, but has largely been ignored recently on non market days.
That’s after Lincolnshire Police said it didn’t have the resources to police it and asked for bollards to be put in place.
The chair of Spalding Town Forum, Coun Rob Gibson has pushed for the TRO to be enforced after organising a consultation on whether it was something residents wanted.
The now deputy leader of Lincolnshire County Council told The Voice that there were issues to implementing barriers but they were something that could be looked at in future if the TRO continued to be ignored or wasn’t policed.
He did say the new TRO will allow the county council’s traffic wardens to give tickets to anyone parked in the area which they couldn’t do before.
“We desperately wanted to get a barrier in place. Since May and the change in regime (at Lincolnshire County Council) we’ve looked at getting in rising bollards, but they’re costly and we’re not even sure that they could be put in.
“The signs and lines being done mean that the traffic wardens and police will be able to enforce it.
“Previously if cars had parked in Market Place and all down that road before 10am then legally we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
“With the new TRO it won’t be legal now.
“I am hopeful it will make a difference and if not, then we can look at other alternatives including getting a barrier.
“Another problem with the barrier is that someone at South Holland District Council would have to open it and close every day and that’s with local government reorganisation coming.”
