Worthing: A town in slow motion...
"WORTHING is to call in a planning expert to advise on the re-planning of the central portion of the town.
The area under consideration includes the site of The Old Town Hall, Warwick Street, Ann Street and Chatsworth Road, plus the widening of the main traffic routes in the borough, with the possible elimination of railway level crossings at South Farm Road and West Worthing."
Don't worry, I didn't enter a time-warp to dream up the above news item.
It was on the front page of the Worthing Herald on May 4, 1945, three days before the Germans surrendered to end the European phase of World War II.
It was on the borough agenda of a council looking ahead to better, post-war years.
If only they knew what was coming!
But the subject has a topical link, with today's borough council asking residents what ideas they have to improve services to benefit the town.
Although level crossings don't strictly come under the label of services, there's no doubt that getting rid of the South Farm Road/West Worthing rail crossings would be one of the best things since the end of rationing.
If people thought that 1945's very low traffic flow would benefit from these crossings' removal, then today's horrendous jams emphatically underline the need for something to be done.
I'm assuming that the 1945 idea wasn't to stop traffic crossing the line at these points altogether.
The jury's still out, however, on how (and at what cost) to provide alternative ways of driving over the line.
There's precious little appreciation of how planners ultimately tackled the High Street/Ann Street area.
A wasted opportunity, when one looks at the multi-storey car park and Guildbourne Centre.
On the wider scene, some main traffic routes have been widened to good effect, but restrictive narrowing of others has caused frustration, coupled with a failure by successive governments to move the main A27 traffic flow out of Worthing's residential environs.
I'm all in favour of the current council appealing for money-saving ideas from the public.
Unfortunately, money often has to be spent to improve the town, including countering the effects of vandalism.
While swift action is taken to remove town centre graffiti, the state of the decorative bollarding along West Parade is a disgrace.
When a friend from London was visiting us last week, she saw the lengths of tumbled stonework and asked whatever had happened!
The council says it costs too much to continually re-set the bollards, only for them to be kicked down again.
Sad to say, but it might be better if the damaged ones were removed altogether, rather than this stretch of the promenade continue to look like the ruins of Pompeii!
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Weather for Worthing
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
