Tenbury Closed for 6 months

At last nights Tenbury Town Council Meeting a representative from Worcester County Council delivered the devastating news, that the repairs to the wall in Market Street could not start until April at the earliest and would take at least six months to complete.

During this time, temporary traffic lights would be in operation and for some periods the road would be completely shut.
This news was met with complete condemnation and derision, from the full Council and members of the public alike.

The designer of the wall from Halcrow explained that they planned to build a brick faced, solid concrete wall 5' high. Pipes would be installed in the wall to allow any water to escape from the road into the brook, but non return valves would prevent water flowing from the brook into the road.

From the experience of a few days of traffic control earlier in the year when traffic queued back past the High School in the St Michaels direction and the Aspire Centre in the Ludlow direction, six months of control is likely to devastate the towns traders and drive residents to distraction.
My previous blog on this issue http://tenburywells.blogspot.com/2007/08/more-traffic-chaos-in-planning.html

It must be remembered that this problem was initially caused by poor planning and drains maintenance, even the pipes in the original wall were blocked. It was further exacerbated, by the way the toilets were demolished.

The Town Council delivered a very strong message that the plans were not acceptable and have asked the Project Team to think again.

Suggestions that I have received so far are:-

• Traders should be given Business Rate relief for the period of disruption as Trade will be affected as the Town WILL be gridlocked and be a regular feature on all traffic reports thus driving away many potential visitors.


• Diversion signs should start on the A49 just outside Leominster and on the A44 at Bromyard.


• The works schedule should be published and suitable gaps be left for delivery lorries.


• Any temporary traffic lights should be correctly installed with sensor phasing so that no green phases are offered to empty roads.


• The lights should only be used when work is in progress and removed at nights and at week end.


• Manual control should be implemented during the morning and evening peak periods.

Shropshire Star

More Traffic Chaos in the planning.

If you think that the chaos of Market Street reconstruction, the building of replacement toilets, the resurfacing of Teme Street, the repairs to the sewers, the repairs to the storm drains and the laying of the power cable for the Biomass Power Station is the end of traffic problems for Tenbury, think again.

Some of these are necessary and others are not!

Extract from Worcester County Councils bridge report.

A4112 Teme Bridge, Tenbury
Teme Bridge carries the A4112 over the River Teme in Tenbury Wells, linking the town itself to the A456, which provides the strategic route to Worcester and Kidderminster to the East, and Ludlow and Leominster via the A49 to the West. The alternatives routes in Tenbury from this directions involve narrow and hilly roads that are particularly unsuitable for the Heavy Goods Vehicles bringing goods to the town centre businesses.

The original bridge dates back to the Fourteenth Century, although the southern three arches were re-built in the Eighteenth Century. In 1815 the northern three spans were widened to a design by Thomas Telford, and further widening was undertaken in 1868. In 1908 reinforced concrete extensions were constructed on both elevations of the bridge to a design by L.G. Mouchel and Partners.

The structure therefore comprises of six sandstone arches, with spans varying between 7.2 metres and 8.4 metres, with widening having been undertaken using reinforced concrete beam and slab construction. In 1952 the soffit of the concrete extensions were treated with sprayed concrete and most recently in 1995 additional transverse beams were installed to strengthen the southern three spans. This last piece of work followed an assessment that identified the need for a weight restriction if strengthening work was not carried out.

Such a restriction would have a significant impact upon local businesses within Tenbury. A Principal Inspection (PI) in October 2005 identified further problems with the bridge, notably erosion of masonry, cracking and displacements of stonework, water penetration of the reinforced concrete extensions, and spalling of the concrete.

Additionally, the south-east wingwall is showing signs of movement, probably due to settlement of the fill behind the abutment. Given the above it is likely that major repairs will be required to Teme Bridge, and these will form a high priority due to the need to maintain a reasonable level of access to Tenbury itself. Further site investigations are underway to establish the interface between the original arch structure and the concrete extension and to allow a full assessment of the bridge to be completed.

Given the historic nature of this structure, there will be extensive consultation with English Heritage, whilst the timing of any works will need to be the subject of extensive local consultation to minimise the disruption that will inevitably occur locally.

The proposed programme and associated costs for Teme Bridge is as follows:
Year Action Cost
2006/07 Investigation and reassessment of concrete extensions £15,000
2007/08 Detailed mapping of defects to support ancient monument consent £30,000
2007/08 Feasibility and English Heritage liason £15,000
2007/08 Design of strengthening £30,000
2008/09 Masonry repairs (provisional) £450,000
2008/09 Strengthening of concrete extensions (provisional) £600,000
Total £1,140,000

Traffic Lights back in Town

Oh my. Chaos!

Traffic queued back to the High School and it's still the holidays.

How are we going to put up with months of this later in the year.

Never Give Up

WCC assure me that the traffic lights will be withdrawn very soon. They will need to go up again once work starts, but until then, traffic will be allowed to flow through Tenbury in it's usual 'hit & miss' way. (Unless the road subsides!)

Misplaced Optimism

Another day, another jam. I know it's not as bad as the traffic jams in London. That's why I no longer live there.

It's bad enough that we have to suffer the lights, but the fact that they are still not working correctly is unbelievable.

This morning I waited in a queue nearly 1/2 mile long, whilst the traffic lights still gave an equal green phases to empty roads coming the other way.

Meanwhile, the few shop keepers that are trading say that their turnover has plummeted as people are either avoiding Tenbury, or are unable to stop.

Not without hope

This morning I sat gently fuming, sitting at the now familiar red light in Market Street, contemplating what I would like to do to the person who set the phasing on the lights. No other cars passed me as I waited for the green phase in Teme Street and the one on Kryewood Road. The sensors are very obviously not working.

As I turned the corner there was a contractors truck, with a very natty hand written sign saying "on emergency call" Horaah they had come to sort out (or even perhaps to remove) the traffic lights.

Many hours later I returned to Tenbury with a renewed sence of optimismn. As I approached the Kyrewood Road lights they were green. (even though no other cars were in front of me, and cars were waiting in Teme Street) Just as I reached the lights they turned red. Could the sensors be working in reverse? I think my paranoia is showing.

Market Street - Tenbury Wells

The wonderful people at Malvern Hub help desk tell me that our multi-layered leaders (my words not theirs) are "working very hard to solve the problem".

In their obscene haste to demolish the toilets, the powers that be, have weakened the embankment and the road so putting at risk the underground pipes and cables that run under it.

Worcester County Council (the road) cannot act until Malvern District Council (the wall) cannot act until Central Networks (the cable) cannot act until Severn Trent (the water pipe) cannot act until National Grid Gas? (the gas pipe) cannot act until...........

Looks like we will be decorating the traffic lights for Christmas.

It would help if anyone knew who the land known locally as "Snail Park" belonged to. MHDC will be very reluctant to spend money cleaning it up, even if they did make the mess demolishing the toilets.

Temporary Traffic Lights - Market Street

Well it's only lunchtime and I've already spent an hour today waiting in line at the temporary traffic lights in Teme/Market Street.

As the traffic lights are run by Worcester County Council, I thought I would give them a call.

It transpires that all traffic lights, must by law be fitted with a sensor to monitor if traffic is approaching/or waiting.

This surprised me as I had seen a green light at the Kyre Bridge crossing stay alight for an entire phases with no cars waiting (or approaching).

A little further investigating and I found that it may be law for the lights to have these sensors fitted, but there is no law that they have to be used. How very British!

It seems that the lights can simply be set on timer and left!

Hopefully my carefully chosen words have galvanised the official into action and at this very moment he is hot footing it to Tenbury to set the lights properly.

Will the jams dissolve if the lights are set correctly?

Temporary Traffic Lights - Market Street

I guess they are necessary as the contractors have weakened the road so much when they demolished the toilet block, but because of the way they are phased traffic is often queued back to the high school. (Thank goodness it's the school holidays or I might not be able to leave home until lunchtime!)

Unfortunately for the lunatics that seem to be running the asylum at the moment, traffic flow in Tenbury is NOT consistent. We do not get 33.3% from across the brook, 33.3% from along Teme Street and 33.3% from Market Square.

We get peaks and troughs, ebbs and flows.

How long do our esteemed leaders think it will be before they can do something constructive to repair the situation. They acted with uncommon and obscene haste to destroy the toilets, perhaps they can now act with similar speed, before Tenbury is completely destroyed as a shopping centre. With much short stay and disabled parking suspended and a continuously clogged town, I would feel even without my current level paranoia and conspiracy theories that Malvern has it in for us!

Yes I am being unreasonable. Yes I am very pissed off.

"Malvern Hills DC, we make a crisis out of a drama!"