Interchange "What No Change!!"
Added on Sunday 22 Nov 2009
It's been a quiet three months since I last wrote about How To Spend £190,000. Presumably this wedge has been earning interest in a Bank somewhere (less administration costs) to keep ahead of inflation :)
But I have a nagging little voice in my head that says it has been spent on the new pavements and kerb stones leading from the Westridge roundabout to the Tesco roundabout to "enhance the Ryde shopping experience".
"That comes from a different budget" I hear a council official reply "and your money is still safe with us".
"I am sorry. I stand corrected". I reply. "I can sleep easy".
While we are on the subject.
Why did the Council not employ a company to do this work that had more than three workers available at any one time. I use to get fed up, along with everyone else, waiting at the lights - longest was about twenty minutes - only to find one bloke working in a hole and two watching.
Have the Council not heard of Penalty Clauses.
This aside, I wanted to write about the New Ryde Interchange, or what was the New Ryde Interchange.
It is nice to know we have diligent council employees keeping an eye on costs and control of outgoing. The result being is the whole sorry scheme looks like it has been dropped.
It seems that of the £5,000,000 allocated, about £1,600,000 has been spent on a proposal (no surprise there), alright, the scheme has been passed and given the green light. Unfortunately the remaining £3,400,000 was not enough to complete the job as costs caused by dithering had risen to about £10,000,000.
The trouble with these "Grand Schemes" is the people in charge of them.
They do not believe there is the talent on our Island to match the 'creative output' from the mainland.
I made two visits to the exhibition in the old General Post Office building in Union Street 5 or 6 years ago and argued with the architects that their scheme was not right for the area, but it fell on deaf ears.
Of the schemes submitted it seems this was the one chosen by the Council.
We have more than enough talent on this Island to design the new Ryde Intersection and I believe it could be done for the remaining monies, and making it more in keeping.
For a start, do away with the fancy idea that the Esplanade needs something like a leaf shaped copper roof or shelter with shops underneath.
There are too many empty shops as it is, what with the sky high rents and business rates. Filling this space, in as propossed is the sign of a company and Council with a lack of imagination.
The Esplanade has always been an open space, apart from when the old Royal Pier Hotel blocked the view down Union Street. The Western Gardens, bus and railway station have been messed around with for as long as I can remember and the reason the area in front of the Prince Consort looks so boring and brutish is due to a bunch of fatheads in the Council, whom back in the 70's knew best in deciding that we needed a relief road along the foreshore. Only to run out of money, but not before demolishing a fine old cast iron building and a number of houses in the process. This area has since been grassed over and has been partly saved by the planting of a few trees and affords a fine view down through the Esplanade to the Ryde Castle and beyond.
It was also this time that the pier entrance was 'improved' by knocking down the two 90 year old hexagonal buildings on either side and altering the old W H Smith building to the monstrosity one sees now.
Sad person that I am, I recently made a special visit to this building and tapped on the 'improvements'. It was hollow! Plywood.
Could it be that the old building or some of it is still under this modern crap?
The interior still looked the same as when I was a boy. Someone in the Council. Do your job and find out.
With a little bit of aid from Stagecoach and Soutern Vectis - stop laughing at the back - this area could be redeveloped to something of its former glory with hexagonal buildings either side of the pier entrance, one incorporating a cafe and an eco loo (from another budget), the other a Tourist shop (partly from another budget). This I am sure would leave enough money for a bit of fine tuning to the road and bus station area if the design process was to be kept on the Island and the Council kept at arms length.
We have more than enough Talent - and cheaper - on this little Island for such a small project, even if those in charge don't.
Oh. And don't forget the fountain
Ryde Grumpy
PS. When I say Council, I do not mean the new Ryde Town Council. They were not around then.
