2:01pm Friday 1st March 2013
I WONDER if I might be allowed to throw in my ha'pence worth about our town and its immediate future.
Currently our town is shabby, shabby, shabby. What it doesn't need is an Italianate piazza.
On entering the town the first thing you are greeted with are unkempt roundabouts and 'grass' verges. They might well be a haven for wildlife but they certainly are not a very encouraging start to your visit. What happened to the proposal for sponsored maintenance and planting? I believe it was shelved because the local authority thought the sponsors' signage was too large. Go look at Tetbury...beautiful sponsored roundabouts.
Now the town itself. If it is going to have considerable monies spent on it then let's start with the footpaths. They are nothing short of a disgrace, simply a threat to life and limb. It is impossible to both walk and glance in shop windows at the same time as you cannot risk lifting your eyes from the pavements lest you trip over. The roads, too, are not much better and certainly nothing to brag about.
What about colour? A lick of paint wouldn't go amiss. And why can't we have hanging baskets like Cricklade or would that be considered yet another health hazard? And trees, how many trees do you see in town? The only town centre trees we ever had were in Dyer Street and what happened to them? They got cut down because they were a 'health hazard'. Give the old town some colour.
Cirencestarians do not want a piazza. What they want is a safe and colourful town with a bit of buzz. Oh and now it seems as though the ridiculously expensive Christmas market is to be shelved. I wonder if the town council might sell me one of the 'sheds' cheap for me to store my firewood in?
JOHN PEACOCK City Bank Road Cirencester
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