... as a certain Mr Shakespeare nearly penned in a famous play wot he wrote about Romeo and Juliette. Northampton correspondent Alan (who is off to the Isle of Wight Beer and Buses knees-up) has paid a second visit to the new zippity-doodah Waterside campus of Northampton University.
Alan writes in Black Italics, fbb writes in Default Text and quotes about and from Uni folk are in Blue.
Problems with car parking are not confined to yon wee bridge at Glenfinnan.
Northampton’s University has moved from two sites on the north side of the town to a whizzo new campus adjacent to the town centre, and quite adjacent to the flood plain of the River Nene too. The Vice Chancellor (Nick Petford) ...
While Mr Petford says enrolment week at Waterside has gone largely without a hitch, there are challenges to overcome.
"The snagging list is big," he said.
"There are a whole range of things from minor plumbing not working to issues with the WiFi (shock, horror!!) and the IT systems, but all those things are being worked through and resolved.”
According to the local paper’s website one snag has already emerged.
Abandoned shopping trolleys and badly parked cars are causing havoc on two Northampton streets, residents there say, after thousands of students moved in at the nearby campus.
New South Bridge Road and Thomas Chapman Grove in Far Cotton have been clogged up daily throughout September since staff and students started filtering into the £350 million Waterside campus a few hundred metres away to the north.
A University of Northampton spokesman said – nuffin to do with us, guv!
The design of the Waterside campus which was approved by the local authority, necessitated public transport coming in at one end of the site and out of the other ...
... as there is no place for buses to turn around on campus.
Because that’s the way we designed it.
A reminder of the geography of the area. The Uni is on a "brown fields" site with two roads in. One from the Bedford Road to the north ...
There is parking on the Campus, but nowhere near enough for today's car owning students and their car owning (and using) lecturers and their car owning (and using) support staff. So, as you would expect if you were a planner with a realistic view of life and its "snags", many users of the Uni simply park in the side streets of this estate that abuts the western entrance to the campus.
Alan's picture confirms the car parking problem ...
... but he only saw two trollies - possibly the same two shown in the newspaper extract above!
Mr Petford continues:-
These routes were authorised by the Northamptonshire County Council and the Traffic Commissioner. No objections were raised by the public during the eight week approval process.
Call me sceptical but I do not see the average Northampton resident putting "consult the VOSA website every Wednesday" on their to do list even if they had the Kremlinological knowledge to decode the significance of the words “revised route and timetable”.
Of course the bus route is not the problem.
In relation to parking in the area, students and staff have been made fully aware of their transport and parking options; including the location of cycle hire bikes, the bus station, rail station and park and ride, which we hope will deter them from parking on public streets. It should be noted, the University does not have power to prevent students parking on the public highway, this is a matter for the Highways Authority.
A University of Northampton spokesman said – nuffin to do with us, guv!
Planners seem to believe that if you do not provide enough car parking at your site drivers will be forced to use public transport, walking or cycling. instead of the car. However the car takes you from exactly where you are now, directly to exactly where you want to be at exactly the time you want to travel , the only delay being caused by all the other drivers with the same aim. but coercion is much easier and cheaper than making bus times easy to find or providing stops with shelters, real time information and comfortable seating and bus priorities on roads.
Northampton has only one park and ride site on the western side of the town centre ...
... so if you are coming from the north, south or east you must go past where you want to go and get the bus back again, repeating the process in reverse to get home.
Mr. Petford says moves were afoot to resolve the problem “in the next twelve months.” It’s an issue outside our control”
A University of Northampton spokesman said – nuffin to do with us, guv!
I suppose we must not blame the university and the local councils for not spotting the problem and doing something about it in the three years the place was being built plus the period before that when it was being planned,
The route through the campus is protected by various barriers to stop it being used as a rat run by non-university drivers. I am told that another of "the snags" happened when a rising bollard rose while a UNO bus was passing over it.
Crunch!
Listening to the Vice Chancellor's expression of amazement and unwillingness to accept responsibility, we are reminded of an incident from the opening few moments of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy".
People of Earth, your attention, please…
This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council.
according to the TV series
As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you…
There's no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now…
What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.
according to the film
Yet again those pesky students - and their teachers, don't seem to want to do as the planners have instructed; but, of course ...
A University of Northampton spokesman said – nuffin to do with us, guv!
Rudimentary details of buses are available on the UON web site ...
... but much of it is out of date ("proposed bus services") and links to the County Council site no longer work ...
... or do not provide any useful information - e.g. about timetables. There is a map (of the "proposed" services) ...
.... and savvy confuser users will find the timetables ultimately but it is far from straightforward. Resolve and determination are needed.
A University of Northampton spokesman said – nuffin to do with us, guv!
And if your were savvy enough to go direct to Gurgle ...
... you would be profoundly disappointed.
Next weekend oddments blog : Saturday 13th October
Lord oh Lord - it's the digital equivalent of two old blokes in a pub, railing against change and why things were always so much better in the past. Railing alternately between "who's responsible for that"/"why haven't the council/government sorted that" and complaining about the nanny state.
ReplyDeleteThat aside, there are some more fundamental issues with the opinions being expressed and the presentation of the facts. For instance:
The design of the Waterside campus which was approved by the local authority, necessitated public transport coming in at one end of the site and out of the other ...
"... as there is no place for buses to turn around on campus.
Because that’s the way we designed it."
Yes, but considered why they designed it that way? Was it that it was to serve the entire site? Considerations on traffic flow imposed by planners? Does Alan know this or acknowledge it may a factor? Er, no!
"I suppose we must not blame the university and the local councils for not spotting the problem and doing something about it in the three years the place was being built plus the period before that when it was being planned" - a statement you'd think that would indicate that nothing has been done as something clearly hasn't. Have bus services been recast to serve the site, linking the campus with the main student residential areas? Was this done in August so that services were bedded in before the move? Was this mentioned on the blog?
Fair comment on the UoN web pages that they really should have sorted and yes, they've been overly optimistic on the issue of car parking.
Of course, Northampton could always not have a university. Perhaps it could follow the shopping to Milton Keynes or Rushden??
Pathetic blog and now comments deleted.
ReplyDeleteGROW UP!
Oh look - comments deleted!
ReplyDeleteYet the blog remains, biased, ill-informed and with supposedly "clever" misspellings.
A case of "Error 404 - comment not found"?
ReplyDelete