Once again Tesco puts the moves on Stourport this time over the river and in Areley Kings, this time with a bid to turn the old Squirrel Inn into a Tesco Express.To some this may seem a little odd given the hold-up with the new store that, rumour has it, will finally be built and ready by September this year. However this isn't odd in the slightest given the proximity of a Londis, a newsagents, and a pharmacy.
For the first time since the new bridge for Tesco opened we've had a confluence of events that resulted in traffic being commensurate with that which can be expected with a new housing development and a superstore.
If, in simplistic terms, one considers Stourport as a crossroads last night one 'arm' was closed and another slowed down by traffic lights leaving traffic building up through town and beyond. I decided to slip off down the new route and see how it would stand up. What I discovered was some major flaws in its layout
Far too many conflicting whispers flitting about that Tesco are pulling out/have pulled out of building on the Carpets of Worth site; that building is all set to start in the middle of next year; the latest sliver to reach my ears is that a supermarket will be built, but it'll be a Morrisons instead.
My bet is that Tenbury will have their (far better positioned) Tesco before construction even starts in Stourport.
They came on line sometime Friday afternoon and as of yesterday the uppermost red light has failed. In terms of usage they are definitely weighted towards the Mitton Road side. I sat at the Severn Road exit watching nothing driving up that side until finally they registered that fact just in time to stop the traffic.
So far I've driven through the main Mitton-side set 19 times and on all but two occasions they've either been red or switching from red with queues forming in the right-hand lane back to the Chinese takeaway. So not bad but that's with only the normal levels of traffic and without the addition of both a superstore and a new housing estate being added next year.
On the plus side the new bridge is indeed open and is a pleasant enough short-cut with the wait at the lights not being far too dissimilar to waiting at the island. Of course one has to sit in the queue to reach the turn-off in the first place and once this new route becomes established as an alternative no doubt queues will start to form up from here too. Likewise in theory this provides an alternative to Vale Road and the dreaded Gilgal, with the only downside being trying to get out of Discovery Road at the other end.
At some point on Friday afternoon the traffic lights at the junction of Severn Road and Mitton Street were switched on; about time to. Now we can all get an idea of how much of a problem this is causing without the added traffic from a housing estate and a supermarket.
I will say the change from amber to red seems far too quick given their positions. I approached the corner on green, started to turn it on amber and came to a halt on red. In this case the red light was to allow a vehicle out from Severn Road... except they weren't exiting they were parked outside a house. I can see that being a problem.
On the other hand in a spot of good news the lights that block Mitton Street and the lights that block the entrance to Severn Road seem to be linked so their hopefully won't be a case when the lights on Mitton are red and the lights to Severn are green; on the downside if they're also linked the other way it means all of Mitton being blocked when someone wants to cross Severn Road. If they're not linked in that way it'll block off the left-hand side of Mitton should someone be wanting to turn.
Well now they're up and running we'll see how they fare.
Writing about the never-ending works that seem to be bodging up our town in the name of Tesco the totally complete and utterly finished link that by-passes the OGL/Chain Wyre island still isn't open. Nor the lights at the mouth of Severn Road that's supposed to control it.
Of course if the lights were currently operational it would be a wonderful display of just how truly $#!%^*%-up everything could get if someone were to, say, shut-down part of the road network by blocking an exit.
As an aside due to everything being in place the current Stop marker at the exit of Severn Road is supposedly acting as a Give Way; however due to its placement the only way traffic can see if they don't have to Give Way is to not Give Way drive over it and stop at the point where the original Give Way markings used to be.
Yes I knew about the prohibition on turning right from Mitton Street into Vale Road, it just completely slipped my mind until I got caught up in all the damn traffic. Big surprise diverting a big chunk of traffic directly through the town causes problems.
I could point out that this is the first time they've done so since they've unofficially confirmed York Street into a single lane by creating a parking bay opposite all the other parking bays, but given everyone ignored the restrictions anyway that's made no difference.
I could get annoyed that despite closing down the right-hand lane into which the traffic from Gilgal flows traffic from Worcester Road is still stopping to let them cross the lanes; particularly as I've noted that more and more traffic aren't stopping any more; although they are obviously slowing down due to the the speeding traffic and the truly stupid tight turn imposed on them.
I could scratch my head over the "yet another set of Tesco roadworks" given that this set of lights have been operational for several months now and I have no idea why they'd need to dig up the road again.
But I won't do that ;-) However yesterday we did have a clear "Seriously?" moment.
As mentioned they've shut down the right-hand lane of Mitton Street to stop the idiots charging up round the corner and slamming to a halt. So all traffic proceeds along the left-hand lane... except yesterday. Yesterday everyone was channelled into the left-hand lane as expected until they rounded the corner at which point they were all channelled into the right-hand lane and then back into the left. Why? Because they'd parked a construction vehicle on the left.
Now this wasn't a case of parking it there so they could access the traffic lights on that side of the road further from where they were working because the cones didn't extend far enough to allow it to drive against the flow. At some point someone would have to stop the traffic to let it out. So why not park it on the right and still stop the traffic to let it across? I'm guessing because it was working on the left and that's SOP.
But still seriously?
Coming back from Kidderminster at the weekend I was surprised to learn that according to the sign placed at its entrance "this road" being Gilgal was going to be closed for the nights of the 16th, 17th and 18th. Um no that'll be Mitton Street which starts much further down. It will still be possible to use Gilgal in order to get to the island and onwards to Hartlebury etc.
To emphasise this the sign at the other entrance was in fact at the actual entrance where Worcester Road meets Mitton Street. So why wasn't the other sign placed slightly back on the splitter triangle?
One of the reasons I've been complaining about trying to link to documents is, of course, the Tesco works. In this instance the path widening that I can't find mentioned on any of the planning applications. Oh sure there's work listed for the other side that leads from the new pedestrian crossings, but not on the Hollybush side of the road.
Well at least they're not widening the path by much.
Bloody hell! That expanse they've filled in is two-feet wide. According to Tesco's own road report Mitton Street varies between 7.4m to 5.5m in width and checking on Google Earth this is one of those 5.5m stretches.
Take off 60cm and that leaves 4.9m. An Audi A3 is 1.995m in width; two of those side-by-side leaves 90cm or just over a normal door width between them and that's if both drive with their wheels scraping the kerb. If you don't want to drive over the drains then two vehicles cannot drive side-by-side along this road. Given the queues that form here due to both Vale Road and York Street/town traffic that means a blockage in one lane will also block the other.
Now firstly I can't measure these so my measurements may be wrong and certainly if you judge the widths using the oncoming car it appears there's room for two vehicles albeit a little tighter than before. However I still can't find any record of work for this side of the road.
The ongoing Tesco roadworks means a few diversions; the current one being that all Mitton-side traffic is being diverted into Vale Road. Coming from that direction gives them priority into lanes two and three; the town-side traffic has priority only in lane one. By itself this can cause some delay as the diverted will be trying to switch from lane two to lane one and some of the lane one traffic will be trying to switch to lane 3 to reach Gilgal.
Then the builders on Vale Road shut-down lane one; then lane two. So all the traffic from Mitton-side was funnelled down their prioritised lane three; and all the traffic from town had to attempt to merge with them.
Bravo!
Although they've been in the paper (this time correctly) it's a bit messy even on the official notifications so I'll add the current schedule of the Tesco works here along with a description.
20th-23rd March. Daytime only. No right turn from Mitton Street to Vale Road to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing (work now completed)
26th-29th March. Daytime only. No left turn from Mitton Street to Lion Hill to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing works.
30th March-4th April Daytime only. No left turn from Mitton Street to Vale Road to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing. For those going "huh?" the Black Star is in Mitton Street.
10th-14th April Daytime only. No right turn from Mitton Street to Lion Hill to add in Puffin pedestrian crossing. For those going "huh?" see above.
16th-18th April Nightime only (21:00-06:00).Worcester Road to Lion Hill closed i.e. what most consider to be the entirety of Mitton Street is closed. Presumably to install traffic lights. To show how well the planners know this town they described it as "Lion Hill to Worcester Road"... it's a one-way system; the other way.
18th-20th April Nightime only. High Steet to Lion Hill closed i.e the other part of Mitton Street next to the Black Star is closed. Presumably to connect pedestrian crossings.
20th-21th April Nightime only.Worcester Road to Lion Hill closed again. Final checks?
After all that hopefully no more Tesco work; which is ironic as the rumours are getting more solid that Tesco aren't even going to build there now due to budgetary constraints.
[Update - How odd the signs that have gone up say only the 16th 17th and 20th as well as some dates in May]
It took a while thanks to the new planning portal not displaying links or giving names of documents (Hey 12+ documents all called "Additional Plans" easy to keep track of where you are), but I've finally found the document that seems to be the blueprint of the traffic light system going up in Mitton Street.
And here it is in all it's PDF'ed glory tucked away in the middle of application 08/1053
So not only the "Controlled Pedestrian Crossings" at the big splitter; but the "Controlled Traffic with Pedestrian Crossing Facilities" too. But take a look at the exit from Severn Road and note the dotted lines that indicate parking bays. For a major egress isn't that bay damn close to the splitter? Imagine one of the long buses trying to negotiate that. For double the fun imagine what would happen it there was a bus parked in each of the two bays.
Digging further the decision date is listed as being the 22nd October 2009, but this was decided at a special planning meeting held on the 6th August 2009 with the minutes being viewable here. What I found interesting in reading these minutes is in what isn't mentioned. Remember this is the only document I can find that shows these new pedestrian links.
Points 3 and 4 list the 106 agreements
Contribution to improve pedestrian linkage to the Town Centre utilising Lodge Road of £30,000Except these linkages don't use Lodge Road, none of them do
Contribution of £50,000 to improve junctions along the route of the enhanced bus services and/or otherwise affected by traffic impact from the development which may include (but not be restricted to) the junction of York Street/Bridge Street/High Street/New StreetNo mention of pedestrian work on these junctions simply 'improvements'. The closest we get is a mention is on page 11 under "Pedestrian Linkage/Connectivity to the Centre" where
A new pedestrian link between the residential development on the west bank of the Stour to the site, and the town centre beyond, is a clear benefitExcept are they talking about the supposed Lodge Road linkage rather than the Mitton Street one? Either way no mention is made of the impact to traffic this will have oh wait sorry -
and the provision of the new road link, which will improve traffic flows and conditions in the townWell yes putting in a additional method to get across to town will help I won't argue that; except all the benefits will disappear as soon as the lights go in.
As a taste of things to come the Tesco workcrew shutdown the exit lane from Severn Road yesterday. To allow traffic out along the 'wrong' lane Mitton Street traffic needed to be filtered and so a set of traffic lights were set up.
Of course only one traffic light was needed at each end as Mitton Street is still down to one lane from Worcester Road to Lion Hill despite the fact that they're still not doing anything to either the road or pavement that justifies such measures.
Therefore the flow of traffic from Worcester Road went something like this:
Traffic from Worcester Road can only turn left at the island when there is no traffic from Hartlebury Road.
When there is no traffic from Hartlebury Road traffic can only turn left when the traffic from Mitton Street has cleared.
The traffic from Mitton Street can only clear when there is no traffic from Gilgal.
When there is no traffic from Gilgal the Mitton Street traffic can only move when the lights are on green.
In other words turning left requires a rough conjunction of four events. Half an hour last night to drive one mile and these lights are set to become permanent.
Or maybe not seeing as someone's blocked off the left-hand lane of Mitton Street from its junction with Worcester Road all the way up to Lion Hill (leaving enough room for ingress and egress and gaps for access to frontages) without apparently doing any work.
Worse yet not only could I not see any notices as to who was carrying out the work (with emergency contact numbers) but on the approach from Gilgal two signs have been placed either side that completely obstruct the footway with no accommodation made to get around them.
It does seem petty to have to keep pointing out these things, but those whose job it is to monitor these things can't be anywhere and I feel that roadwork crews have been getting away with lax adherence to the rules for too long. As such it's something we the public have to keep on top of.
[Update 28/2 - Still there last night with no work being done; still there this morning. If there's still no work being done they're obstructing the public highway which is a criminal offence and a matter for the police]
[Update - The council have been assured by the contractors that there is work going on now which of makes one question why these restrictions were put up yesterday. I've also pointed out that they're pushing vehicles into the right-hand lane too soon and that the lane-ahead closed sign on Gilgal is nonsensical because their left-hand lane (to the island) isn't closed]
[Update 29/2 -At long last some work was being done - one of the residents was taking the opportunity of the lane closure to paint their fence. As for the reason for the lane closure - the road was still unblemished leaving no reason why vehicles couldn't use it. I did note this morning that one of the roadwork signs in Gilgal has been removed and the other shifted to allow pedestrian access; the incorrect lane closure signs are still up though.]
[Update - Two days and they've just started doing something that justifies having shut the lane down - pathetic]
My questions have been answered even the ones I didn't ask - how do pedestrians gain access to Tesco; and how is the traffic from Severn Road supposed to exit onto the near blind corner of Mitton Street?
The answer is simple, but not one you'd discover from the plans submitted. As detailed on the site plan internally labelled as 6046-P10 a splitter triangle is to be placed at the mouth of Severn Road; again as shown two "pedestrian link[s]" will be added across the mouth joining the splitter. What isn't shown is that an additional pedestrian link will be placed across Mitton Street to connect to the splitter.
Both this and the Severn Road links will be a set of "phased traffic lights" or to put it in layman's terms - a normal set of traffic lights that alternate between red and green though apparently they'll be set and "tweaked" to only switch when there is actual need. What does this mean? It means traffic rounding the corner of Mitton Street and being confronted by a set of lights; it potentially means traffic in the left hand land being blocked be traffic being halted at the mouth of Severn Road. As a consequence traffic will stick to the right-hand lane until they know the left is clear.
Due to this traffic coming down the Worcester Road towards the island and subsequently into Mitton Street will instead head down Discovery Road and into Severn Road because they know even more traffic wants to enter the right hand lane of Mitton Street so that junction will be treated as a priority more so than it is currently and thus become blocked up; while at the same time it offers the certainty of being able to enter Mitton Street unhindered from Severn Road rather than hoping to be able to get out at the island. In other words they've created a rat-run.
It gets better - I've never seen any plans that show the three puffin crossings at the Vale Road end of Mitton Street nor the one crossing Mitton Street at Severn Road and thus, if I'm not mistaken, the public has had no opportunity to object to this proposal.
But hey it's all going to be okay because they've modelled it using real data -
"So what if the model or the data is wrong; what if it all becomes one big mess; is there a process to have these removed?" I asked
"But the model won't be wrong; if it is there's bigger concerns" came the reply.
"But what if it is? Is there some method of having it all taken away?"
"No"
But so long as the data is reliable there's no problem; expect how good is it? For example queues form along this stretch of the road. Given road counters that measure traffic flow over them how does such a counter distinguish between a queue of traffic whereby the queue only progresses by one car every 10 seconds and a free-flowing stream of traffic with the cars separated by 10 seconds of time?
Not withstanding the confusing Public Notice which they've acknowledged and had spotted; the question arose as to exactly why they were shutting down all four arms sequentially when crossings were only going up on three? Also that the Order for the crossings themselves referred to Lower Mitton Street which doesn't exist.
In the first instance they'll be doing kerbing work on the fourth section hence a need for the temporary closure; however the the Lower Mitton Street produced something interesting.
Apparently there are only going to be three crossings rather than four due to access to a Scout Hut; now I can only assume they mean the vehicle entrance to the old TA headquarters which does indeed sit right on that corner. Except that corner is the one people need to be able to reach in order to get to Tesco. In others words using the crossings will result you being on the wrong side of Mitton Street to reach Tesco which calls into question why the heck these crossings are being added in the first place.
Sadly the guy with the knowledge won't be in until Monday; so I'll expect a call then.
It seems Tesco are going to be adding some pedestrian crossings to Lion Hill and Severn Road next month; to be precise "4 puffin crossings". One in Severn Road and one each at the arms of the Vale Road/Mitton Street junction and one at the Lion Hill/Mitton Street Junction. Judging by the use of "Lower Mitton Street" I can only assume that this is Hollybush side rather than the town side; that would be the only one that made sense.
The joke on that score is that they're expecting those using Lower Mittons Street to walk up and past the new Tesco site over to the Lower Mitton Street/Vale Road crossing on to the Lower Mitton Street/Lion Hill crossing and then all the way back down to get to Tesco due to the lack of pavement further back on the Tesco side of Mitton Street. IOW:
Having asked about the Tesco covenant I have been informed that Tesco were restricted to only food stuffs and convenience items however this seems to have been ditched in return for the extra 500 square metres of retail space they 'acquired' in planning in 2009.
So it appears they're not only getting extra space, but are also no longer restricted as to what could be sold in it.
Given that work is under-way at the Carpets of Worth site and Tesco's known propensity to apply for retro-active permission for changes made it's time to make sure all the ducks are in order.
My Tesco tagged articles detail all the planning permissions and site drawings etc. there is however one niggling memory that I can't place.
Someone somewhere (Shuttle/WFA/here!) stated that the new store would be limited in the types of items it could sell - so no clothing section etc. Checking through the documentation and decision notices I can find no such covenants stated.
I cannot locate the originator of this statement; can anyone recall who it was? Was it you? Where did you get this information from?
Okay so I said they had a sign up in Mitton Street stating right hand lane closed and it was the left-hand lane in Severn Road - I was wrong. The lights are on the left, but the actual roadworks are on the right. However all that pales into insignificance because they've now closed off the left-hand lane of Mitton Street in order to demolish the CoW brick wall. There are plenty of signs up though perhaps someone could explain why there need to be ones in the left-hand lane of Gilgal given that this traffic won't be going near them?
Anyway continuance is that the path widening/road narrowing will NOT be happening. However this poses its own interesting question as one of the justifications of Tesco building on this site was due to the link to the town. Now while I'm unsure how dependent this was it's difficult to state that the current connection between the town and the site that was used as a measure of the distance is in any way viable.
So with no route from the town this is going to be mainly car traffic with little to no connect between the two which is pretty much what everyone's been saying. Wow big surprise there.
