{"id":3350,"date":"2023-11-02T02:29:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T02:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/daventry-due-for-dynamic-development\/"},"modified":"2023-11-02T02:29:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T02:29:11","slug":"daventry-due-for-dynamic-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/daventry-due-for-dynamic-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Daventry Due for Dynamic Development"},"content":{"rendered":"
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But we don’t want to rush into anything!<\/div>\n

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But the town council has a vision …<\/p>\n

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… albeit an unhurried one.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Actually the council hasn’t had a vision; it has paid someone else to have a vision. That someone is …<\/div>\n
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The company is a relative newcomer (2013) to the game, but must be important and good because its on-line CV is in very big print.\n
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With offices in London, Utrecht, Portland (Oregan) and even Hampshire<\/span>, they’ve got to be ideally placed to advise on Daventry. Their web site is somewhat lacking in examples of their global reach, however.\n
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Hmmmm?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Anyway, the report is choc-a-bloc with proposals to make the town look pretty, to improve the environment for walkers, cyclists, elephant trainers and, of course, to save the planet.<\/div>\n
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Now Daventry has growed a bit big! Here is the town in the 1930s …\n
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… and here is the town today.<\/p>\n

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Note the huge Royal Oak industrial estate …<\/p>\n

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… and, not far away to the north, the even hugerer DIRFT.\n
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Daventry has a bus station. Well, sort of …\n
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… just behind a hedge on New Street.<\/p>\n

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It is next to Tesco and shares an entrance with the store’s car park – well, e<\/span>very little helps<\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The retailer of repute is the rectangular slab in the above Google view, top right. Note, in passing, the juxtaposition of the bus station and the car park opposite.<\/p>\n

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There are four very tatty shelters serving six head-in reverse out stands.<\/p><\/div>\n

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And that’s it.<\/p><\/div>\n

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No toilers, no waiting room, no enquiry office; absolutely NOTHING to aid the passenger.<\/div>\n
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So what is Troy proposing to enhance the environment, accessibility and user-friendliness of this very basic interchange facility?<\/div>\n
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Answer – get rid of it all together<\/span>!<\/div>\n
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Here is what the consultants say, in a paeon of praise for the environmental benefits of bus versus car.<\/div>\n
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AIM<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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To change the character and hierarchy of New Street from a car dominant space, to a pedestrian and cycle friendly environment<\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n

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PROPOSALS \/ INTERVENTIONS<\/span><\/div>\n

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1. Make New Street one-way to reduce road widths and provide space for a new cycle route and wider footpaths.<\/span><\/div>\n

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2. Make drivers more aware of people movement through improved traffic slowing measures. Implement colour and texture change along the length of New Street carriage way.<\/span><\/div>\n

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3. Explore the potential to develop the former Magistrates Car Park with a development that creates a positive \/ active frontage and helps positively addresses the road junction.<\/span><\/div>\n

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4. Explore options for redeveloping the Police and Magistrates court buildings for a mixed use development with commercial uses at ground floor (with possibly a hotel above). Any such scheme would seek to retain the court element of the Magistrates building. This would be the subject of a detailed development brief.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And the bus station?<\/p>\n

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The underused bus station is prominent and unattractive in the street scene as it is heavily surfaced and could therefore be reinvented to have a more attractive alternative use.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Almost hidden is the plan to relocate the stops to on-street locations in New Street. Quite how Troy defines “underused” is unclear as almost anyone who takes a bus to or from the town centre will use the bus station.<\/span><\/div>\n

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And what might that alternative us be, pray.\n
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There’s Tesco with its car park and by the big green number 6 is something that looks very much like a car park<\/span>.<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n


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A different map, outlining a different part of the project, spills the beans.\n
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And there it is, clearly at Number 10.<\/p>\n

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Troy wants too turn Daventry’s inadequate bus station into a car park<\/span>.<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n


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Thanks a bunch Troy. Thanks a bunch Daventry town council.<\/span><\/div>\n

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So glad to see that your environmental aims work out in favour of the motor car and against the bus.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Here is a better idea:-<\/span><\/div>\n

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Close New Street completely except for buses. Dramatically improve the ambiance and facilities of the new high quality bus station and enhance ALL the services.<\/span><\/div>\n

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And maybe stop telling lies, Stagecoach.<\/div>\n
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More about these “improvements” in tomorrow’s blog using information from Northampton Alan who took a trip to Daventry earlier in the week.<\/div>\n
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P.S. Troy does have one bus pictured in its extensive report.\n
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Recognise it? It is an induction charged midibus operated briefly by Arriva on route 7 in Milton Keynes<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The project was a technical failure – so ideal to improve the environment in Daventry.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 Daventry “On The Spot” blog : Friday 3rd Nov\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But we don’t want to rush into anything! But the town council has a vision … … albeit an unhurried one.\u00a0 Actually the council hasn’t had a vision; it has paid someone else to have a vision. That someone is … The company is a relative newcomer (2013) to the game, but must be important and good because its on-line…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}