Action to help Norwich Saturday shoppers

Added: 06/11/2008
Category: Norfolk County Council

Innovative measures to keep Christmas shopping traffic flowing in Norwich on Saturday (8 November) have been backed by Norfolk County Council and Norfolk Police after serious problems last weekend.

On Saturday (1 November) cars queuing for car parks caused gridlock at key junctions. This inconvenienced many motorists and was a particular problem for bus operators, with many services seriously delayed.

First Eastern Counties proposed using an accredited* private company to keep traffic moving on Saturday when Christmas shopping coincides with a Norwich City home match.

The County Council, as Highways Authority, and Police have given their support to EventGuard being brought in for every Saturday until Christmas. Norwich City Council and the Chapelfield shopping centre have also supported the initiative. This is the first time an accredited private company has been used on traffic control duties in Norwich.

Eight members of EventGuard staff, who have the authority to direct traffic, will ensure that queuing for car parks is safe and does not obstruct traffic. Key locations will be:

~ The eastbound lane of Chapelfield, where problems have been caused by traffic backing up from the entrance to Chapelfield car park;

~ St Stephen's roundabout, where car park queues gridlocked the junction last Saturday;

~ The main Castle Mall car park at Market Avenue.

Adrian Gunson, Norfolk County Council's Cabinet member for planning & transportation, said he was pleased that rapid and innovative action was being taken following last Saturday's problems:

"There was no evidence of the credit crunch reducing the numbers of shoppers heading into Norwich last Saturday for early Christmas shopping. Unfortunately parts of the city centre were brought to a standstill as people queued for car parks, and this had a serious knock-on effect on bus services. Some of the problems were caused by lack of consideration. St Stephen's roundabout was gridlocked by people who queued across the junction, ignoring yellow boxes and stopping traffic from moving in any direction.

"The County Council is happy to support the bringing in of EventGuard to stop a repeat of these problems on other Saturdays between now and Christmas. It is important that people move on when directed to do so by EventGuard staff, who have the legal power to direct traffic. Finding a space in another car park will almost certainly be quicker than getting caught up in a repeat of last Saturday's problems.

"I would also urge people to think about using park & ride rather than driving into the city centre. From 24 November Shop & Go services** will be available at Harford and Thickthorn park and rides, which makes it even easier than having to carry shopping around."

Laurie Egan, Network Manager for Norfolk County Council, said on some recent Saturday's queues were not caused by an overall lack of capacity. "There was a surge of people heading for the most popular car parks throughout the day. People then became trapped in the queues even though there were spaces at park and ride sites and in some city centre car parks.

"This really is the time of year when people might to well to use park and ride or try other bus services. People driving into the city should listen to the travel advice on the local radio or before they set off go on to the www.help2park.com website for an up to the minute picture of parking space availability. With our electronic car park space signs people can quickly see when car parks are full allowing drivers to divert to car parks with spaces."