DOUBLE YELLOW LINES

by Jez Bond

It was a great day when quite by chance the council’s widening of the pavement to a section of Clifton Terrace appeared to centre around our building. Despite my project manager trying to convince me that the work was scheduled because of our development, I remained stalwart in my belief that it was completely co-incidental. Today we heard from the men carrying out the work on the street that they are soon to complete their task by painting a set of double yellow lines along the entire run of the corresponding section of road. This rather confirms the fact that our property, which has planning permission conditioning deliveries and loading at the front of the premises during the day, was indeed not the reason for these works. Indeed one now realises that the street department most likely had no idea about the planned development of number 11 – 13 Clifton Terrace.

Luckily our planning officer, who completely appreciates the restrictions that double yellow lines inflict and the threat they pose to our operation, is now on the case trying to determine the best course of action. I have suggested a designated loading bay –  even one with a twenty minute loading/waiting time would be workable. My fear, however, is that with a zone for parking spaces on the opposite side of the road and the new widened pavement it may no longer be possible to be stationed on our side of the road with enough room for buses to pass. Let’s face it, that would seem to be the logical reason for now painting the double yellow lines.

So what are we going to do? Well it’s not really my problem is it…..? Only it is – and of course I’ll be awake at night thinking about it. Two solutions I propose: One is that they provide a loading bay outside our building and eliminate some car parking spaces opposite so that the useable road width is increased and buses can pass – but I don’t think they will like this solution; it’s costly and means a loss of parking spaces. The otherm, then, is that they create a loading bay on the left hand side of our property, just as the road widens back out. It’s not directly in front of our building, but luckily it’s just a few metres away and we could make it work. We would need to ensure that it was for theatre use only though – as, with the station beside us, we don’t want every Tom, Dick and Taxi pulling up for drop-offs or worse still waiting for pick-ups.

It’s a compromise, but as EDF energy will testify I’m getting used to those…

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