New solution to cultural hub 'mess' is proposed by board
CREATING a more attractive link between Exeter's Central Library, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (Ramm) and the Phoenix, could cost about £500,000.
The three buildings are within the city's Cultural Quarter and Exeter's councillors are keen to make parts of the route between them more attractive.
The Exeter Board, a joint committee of county and city councillors, asked for possible options to be drawn up for the lower library area, although as yet there is no money in council budgets for such a scheme.
However a proposal which would see a tree-lined space created in Musgrave Row, suitable for street theatre, has been drawn-up and has won the board's approval.
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Now board chairman Councillor Andrew Leadbetter will lobby Devon's Cabinet for funding. Cllr Leadbetter, city and county councillor for St Loyes and Topsham as well as cabinet member for Exeter, said: "That road is a mess at the moment. If you have lived in Exeter for a while you don't perhaps notice it, but it is a big area of space.
"At the moment if you cut through from Musgrave Row to go to the Phoenix and the Ramm you have to go through a car park.
"But it would be lovely to see it nicely paved and used as a link into the park as well as the Phoenix and the museum and back out again.
"It is a service road but it is also used as a cut through."
Also included in this early design are plans to put pinch points in Musgrave Row and lower the pavements so that it is more pedestrian friendly. Disabled parking bays would remain.
Cllr Leadbetter added: "We can't close it completely to vehicles as it is a service road."
"All the members of the board bought into this plan and now it is a question of going away and finding the money.
"I will be taking this to my cabinet colleagues to see if we can get this added to the budget."
Rachel Sutton, the city's lead councillor for transport and sustainable development, agreed that it would be a boost for the city to get the changes made.
Cllr Sutton said: "If you don't know Exeter and looked at this street as you went past you would think it was just the service yards for the shops and High Street.
"Making it look less like a car park and traffic island will make it more encouraging for people to come around the corner.
"It is important to do this when we are regenerating the other side of the library and emphasising the links between Ramm and the Phoenix.
"We should look further at how the city council can contribute to this."
Comments
by DevonCC
Friday, October 12 2012, 4:54PM
“As part of our redevelopment project at Exeter Central Library we are looking to improve the disabled parking by reconfiguring the parking at the upper level to make it easier and safer for disabled drivers.
Before any plans were drafted we conducted a number of surveys of the disabled parking spaces to understand more about usage. Our findings show that the 12 parking spaces outside the library are not always used – its busy over lunch but at other times only 7 or 8 spaces are used at any one time, and only half of the people using the spaces go into the library, the other half go into town. There is also lots of mis-use of the parking spaces by people without blue badges, and this is an enforcement issue that will be addressed.
In addition the spaces are quite difficult for people to use, as the width between the spaces is too narrow, driving in and out of the space is difficult and there have been a few accidents in the past. Although reconfiguring the spaces will mean a few will be lost at the upper level, they will be much easier to use. We are also looking to increase the number of spaces at the lower level and change the parking restrictions. This will provide more options for people with disabilities wanting to have good access to the city centre. We anticipate that the number of disabled parking bays in the near vicinity of the library to remain the same, if not increase.
Improving physical access to the building is an important element of this redevelopment and we have consulted with local disability group Living Options throughout the design and planning. We will continue to work closely with our disability focus group to ensure the best possible decisions are made to make the building more accessible.
The project's development can be followed online at http://tinyurl.com/9zp8pww
Comments questions and suggestion are welcome, and should be directed to the Community Involvement Co-ordinator by calling 01392 384315, emailing ecldevelop@devon.gov.uk or writing to Exeter Central Library project, Devon Libraries, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, EX2 7NL
- Devon County Council”
by Zbieta
Sunday, October 07 2012, 12:41PM
“Having seen the artist's impression and the various information leaflets about the redevelopment of Exeter Central Library, I note with concern and dismay that the Council intends to dispense with the essential disabled parking spaces outside the library, turning them instead into a pedestrianised area.
As a disabled driver myself, with limited mobility and a car adapted to hand controls, I know that this would create huge problems and disadvantages for disabled drivers in a city where there is already a shortage of disabled parking spaces, and where those that exist are at a premium.
Once again I feel that disabled people are being marginalised in Exeter. To cursorily say, as in the library's leaflet 'Exeter Central Temporary Library Castle Street' that 'There are seven disabled parking spaces behind Boots on the corner of Northernhay Place' is frankly insulting and inadequate, and is in any case at some distance for disabled people. These seven parking spaces are full most of the time, as indeed are the ones currently outside the library, necessitating a tacit queuing system among disabled drivers in order to park in the city. In this situation, how can the Library claim in its leaflet 'Improving your Library' that the redeveloped library will include 'Improved physical access to the building'?
I note that the article in the Express and Echo, 4-10 October, 'New solution to cultural hub 'mess' is proposed by board' proposes that Musgrave Row becomes 'a tree-lined space ... suitable for street theatre' and that 'disabled parking bays would remain.' For your information, there are currently inadequate disabled parking bays in Musgrave Road, together with a sign that says that disabled parking is only permitted between 6 pm and 8 am, so this would hardly be a solution.
My far more practical proposal in the interests of disabled drivers is that if the council is going to dispense with the vital disabled parking outside the library, that it relocates it to Musgrave Row, which was in any case a disabled parking area until about ten years ago. Street Theatre isn't for everyone, and could be held in Bedford Square, which is far more suitable and central for this purpose.
I therefore beg the council and everyone concerned to rethink its plans to include adequate parking that would otherwise be lost, for Exeter's disabled citizens, and would like to hear from anyone who agrees with me.
I E Derczynska
Exeter”