Ceredigion's Review of Traffic Orders

Proposals have been published today by Ceredigion County Council for alterations to hundreds of traffic orders in the county, the most visible of which are roadside yellow lines. The orders haven’t been reviewed for many years and, now that the county's traffic wardens have been back on the streets for almost a year, we thought it was about time the lines were reviewed.

Of course parking restrictions aren’t there to make life difficult for people. They’re there largely to prevent accidents and to prevent roads being blocked by parked cars. The short-term parking places in town centres keeps traffic turning over in order to help trade. However the Council wants to make sure that every parking restriction is still relevant and useful.

All local councillors, who know the issues in their local areas, have been consulted and the total of 440 changes that they've requested have now been published for local residents to comment on by 4th June. The proposals can be seen in full here. Signs have also gone up where changes are proposed and can be viewed in person in Aberystwyth Town Library, Canolfan Rheidol and other council offices around the county.

The proposals would remove yellow lines in many places and add some in others where a need has been identified. But, as whole, they’ll result in a net decrease in yellow lines in the county of 1000 metres, with a further 900 metres where existing restrictions are relaxed. I think this will be welcomed by people.

The intention is to repeat this exercise every year from now on to make sure that parking restrictions remain relevant and have community support.

In case you missed the link in the article (as I'm hearing some people have done), you can see the proposals by clicking on on this link and following the links at the bottom of that page.

Planning for Ras yr Iaith

September may be the other side of Summer, but planning for Ras yr Iaith -  a relay race between Machynlleth and Aberteifi in support of the Welsh language, is taking place in earnest. 

The next meeting of the planning group is tonight, Wednesday 8th May in the Llew Du (Black Lion), Bridge Street, Aberystwyth. In the meantime, here's some early artwork.

More background here

The door that saved the National Library of Wales?

I was shown round the fire damage to the National Library last week, along with Ceredigion's Assembly Member, Elin Jones (for anyone who doesn't know, a serious fire broke out at the top of the building on 26th April). 

A few things were very clear. Firstly, the damage is serious but restricted to a relatively small area of the top floor. Secondly, how well the library's fire safety measures, from the evacuation of staff to the sealing off of the affected area, worked on the day of the incident. Thirdly, how close, but for these measures, the library came to a real catastrophe, both in human terms and in terms of the vast catalogue of national treasures contained in the building.

The photo shows a part-burnt but still solidly intact fire door that separated the area of the fire on the left from the rest of the building. I’ll bear this picture in mind the next time I think of ignoring a sign saying ‘Fire Door - Keep Shut’.

The library staff pointed out how the materials and construction methods used many years ago for some parts of the building make it extremely vulnerable should any future fire ever break out in, or spread to, those areas. The new Welsh Government Minister for Culture, John Griffiths, also visited the library following the fire. I’m very hopeful that the Welsh Government will make available money not only to repair the existing fire damage but to safeguard those parts of the building that remain a future risk. The heritage contained within the National Library is irreplaceable.

Despite everything, thanks to the hard work of the highly committed staff, the National Library was open to the public again just three days after the fire. More photos here