Endless Road works

It seems that every where you turn in Tamworth there is somone either digging up or repairing the road. It
amazes me to think how much stuff there is under there electricity, water, gas, telecoms, cable tv, fibre
optics, sewers, sufface drainage and then enough aggregates to support the road and vechiles above all of
which seems to need constant support, mix in a little ice and chaos ensues.
This time of year the county council runs round desperatly trying to fill in potholes in the road based on

their severity, yet when a planned maintenance takes place or the roads are surface dressed to stop

potholes we all moan about the inconvenience we rarely link the 2 elements.
So what am I getting to?
February is going to bring temporary road closures to two of the bridges on the Bolebridge Egg for

maintenaince, these will be done consectutively to reduce disruption but I know I will be one of those

moaning when it takes me an extra minute or so to get where I'm going. The works are part of essential

maintenaince and will secure the future of the bridges, including following works which can be done below

the deck of the bridges.
The disruption this will cause is testiment to the excellent bit of planning in the late 1970's and early 1980's

that brought us this fit for purpose highway network. 30 years after opening the Bolebridge Egg still has
spare capacity and whilst in need of some maintenance does a great job of bringing traffic together and

distributing it efficently. Not being old enough to remember how this was achieved I look to my elders for

advice but this has made me think, if this was to be tried in recent years would we have been able to

achieve this. The reason I am not confident is the amount of regulation that the last government pushed

down to local planning authorities, it is for me still too early to say whether the new governments removal of

red tape has filtered down.
Putting that aside the next few weeks are going to be a traffic nightmare but we should remember how

lucky we are in Tamworth when it comes to roads, ok ventura isn't the best for traffic but it's not the worst

shopping centre I could mention when it come to navigating a path through. Bolebridge Egg keeps local

traffic in the town moving, something I may have to remember when I'm sitting in the queues next month.
It will take 12 months to complete this work but with more traffic on the roads with the new Holiday Inn and

Travelodge hotels in the area we're going to need it.

Every Cloud ?

We are seeing in Tamworth and throughout the Uk that savings are being made, the most recent announcement affecting Tamworth is the closure of the Magistrates Courts. I fully agree with the comments that have already been made by our MP Christopher Pincher and many local residents who feel that this is a loss to the people of Tamworth.
I am on occasions an optimist and wonder if this could in fact be a vital catalyst in further changing our town centre.
I don't know the intentions of the ministry of Justice and nor do I know the ownership of the building and land it stands on but what I do know is that it neighbours a reasonably large amount of public sector assets with TamYouth, Connexions and the police station. Is this an opportunity to look at an invest to save approach to both generate savings and protect vital services provided in the area while redeveloping Tamworth's Town Centre and a gateway to the town centre? Possibly providing new youth facilities, new police station, new office space all built in ways to provide better energy efficiency?
So how could or would this happen?
The public sector does not have large amounts on money to spend on capital developments and neither does it have the ability to generate large levels of income from such facilities to generate revenue to pay off borrowing and so the public sector would need some private sector help. There is possibly an opportunity here for a public/ private partnership which would take the benefits of each partners assets and contribution to make something big happen. The public sector has the land and needs new facilities, the private sector has the investment and drive to commercially make a return.
My vision for the area would be a multi use development providing better facilities for the people of Tamworth and maybe any of the following ideas. - New Towncentre housing, new town centre office space, an alternative road access to the new Gungate development, more car parking, commercial exhibition space a complementary offer to Albert Road and the new Gungate development. All potentially generating a return for an investor.
This is only an idea of mine and would depend on a number of parties to make the right moves to make it happen, I'm happy to put the idea out there for discussion and help make things happen for our town centre.

Jeremy Oates

New Year New Toys Blogger

Having realised I often have a lot to say and simply can't fit my thoughts into 140 characters on Twitter and no one reads notes on Facebook I thought I'd have a go at a Blog.

So keep your eyes out for my random thoughts and writings here. I think there may also be an opportunity to comment here, wow Jeremy Oates can have his thoughts challenged in public lol, this could be fun.

Post Soon x