ONE week ago today, the people of Walney and Barrow were once again subjected to substantial traffic tailbacks that lasted for hours.
The severe disruption occurred when temporary traffic signals were installed near the Promenade while work was carried out to replace two lighting columns on Central Drive.
My inbox was inundated with emails about the bumper-to-bumper traffic stretching into Barrow town centre and beyond, with one resident describing the situation as “absolute hell”.
Fuming council taxpayers vented their frustration on social media. One said it was chaos from Tesco to Walney, while another reported that it took 45 minutes to travel from Barrow to North Scale.
When a story about the traffic chaos appeared on the Mail’s website, it attracted more than 100 comments, most of them negative.
Walney Labour councillor Frank Cassidy and I were told by residents that the disruption caused hospital appointments to be missed, care home staff to arrive late for work and taxi drivers to lose income, to name just a few examples.
At times like these if emergency vehicles are delayed, such situations can become a matter of life and death.
What makes the episode even more frustrating is that Walney Island councillors were not informed in advance about the works.
The constitution of Westmorland and Furness Council says that elected members must be notified about significant developments in their wards.
That did not happen, leaving councillors in the dark when complaints from frustrated residents began flooding in.
People needed to know what was happening, why it was happening and what measures were being taken to minimise the impact on traffic.
Nor is this the first time motorists have been subjected to traffic chaos because of infrastructure-related disruption on this part of Walney.
In March last year, the northbound lane on the Promenade was closed because of problems with an electrical cable.
The closure was initially expected to last only a few hours while remedial work was undertaken. Instead, it stayed in place much longer, resulting in severe congestion.
Last week’s disruption lasted a matter of hours but caused chaos and we as council taxpayers deserve better.
Had lessons been learned from last year, or the local councillors been advised of plans, they would have been able to offer local knowledge and a simple solution.
On Wednesday, Westmorland and Furness Council senior management issued an apology which acknowledged shortcomings and pledged that processes would be reviewed.
The rest of the work will be undertaken without any temporary traffic signals in place.
Westmorland and Furness Council should take some credit for apologising in the wake of last week’s traffic fiasco.
It now needs to make sure it never happens again.
The council is already facing reputational damage over the future of the market and the Forum, both of which have been earmarked for demolition.
I have been vocal with them that any regeneration plans for Barrow town centre must include a cast-iron commitment to replace The Forum. This commitment and the feasibility study they propose on its financial sustainability should be a serious piece of work with successfully run theatres around the country, and not just lip service to one in Chester that appears to have been the model for stuffing Ulverston’s library into The Coro.
The Heart of Barrow programme is being reset with yet more consultations underway – and the council acknowledges that progress has been frustratingly slow, an understatement to say the least.
Meanwhile, the former Barrow Working Men’s Club building on Abbey Road, aka the burnt-out House of Lords, is approaching the tenth anniversary of it becoming arguably the town’s most deplorable landmark.
Ten years is a long time for this situation to continue without any perceivable action being taken by the local authority. Westmorland and Furness have powers to deal with this eyesore and the residents of Barrow are rightly angry that they haven’t used them.