Eternal Triangle - It's No Waiting at Any Time

At the junction of St Peter's Street and the High Street there's a big sign saying 'Pedestrian Zone'. It looks quite clear to me but cars regularly pass by it. There were two signs but one of the signs was removed about a couple of weeks ago. Don't know why, or by whom.

The cars, the vans, even the bicycles, in that triangular area and down the road have long caused problems to people who foolishly think that when a big official sign says 'Pedestrian Zone' that's what it means.

 It's true cars generally don't go very fast but even five miles an hour is quite fast if you're hit by a ton of metal and all you've got to protect you is your skin. (I don't mean all people who enter The Triangle Market area are nudists, or that there is a large sign saying 'Nudists Only', I mean pedestrians aren't encased in metal and carbon-fibre and foam and plastic – although, now I think of it, some clothing may well have these assemblages of materials - no, I'm just trying to contrast vulnerabilities).

Where am I talking about? The Triangle.

Most Easterly Community Group has been campaigning about this situation for some time. One of their members was able to get a grant to create mobile flower beds. The idea was these would be trundled across the entrance at the top in the North End bollarded entrance during the implied 'No Loading or Unloading between 10am and 4pm'. This caused quite a local kerfuffle from Lowestoft Town Council, East Suffolk Council and the police. They suggested, as I understand it, that it was not their responsibility to enforce the traffic order and there was some doubt about whether the traffic order had ever been ratified. Because of this, nothing has happened.

There are many arguments around cars, car parking, access, pedestrians and whether Elon Musk is mad. Setting those aside into the litterbin of vicious circles, as far as I can discover the area is not legally a Pedestrian Zone, but what it definitely is

Is a No Waiting at Anytime Zone.

There is undoubtedly an enforceable Traffic Regulation Order for the Triangle area - “No waiting at anytime”. So that means that any traffic which enters the Triangle area must keep moving, unless it parks in a Loading Bay for enough time to load or unload and then it must move on. There is no provision for parking anywhere else .

The difference between the High Street area and London Road North is not much, just the Traffic Regulation Order says as well “No loading or unloading between 10 and 4 pm”.

If this is the case, then it seems that there is nothing to stop police officers, PCSO's and indeed our outsourced parking wardens, to enforce the regulation as it stands. That means that any vehicle which is stationary and not in a Loading Bay should be subject to a parking fine.

Now that could be a problem for Bob who runs the wonderful grocers and for the fish van which comes on a Friday and perhaps for Use It All. But it's a pedestrian area for people walking, even people standing about talking. It's for them. It could even be for a market. Cars should take second place for once.

It is obvious that the original intention was to make the area a place of safety for pedestrians. Why not enforce the regulations to do that very thing? Let's change something.

You can find link to the map where the regulations are displayed here.

You can find a link here to the regulation itself here

You can find a link to God who I am sure is going to enforce this, come what may,  here