Should The Town Centre Be Pedestrianised On Market Days?

June 28th 2014

The town council discussed pedestrianising the town centre on market days on June 24th, prompted by a letter from a resident. The resident's proposals included cutting the centre off to delivery drivers and disabled drivers (but excluding emergency vehicles), and also creating a parking area out of Mercer Row.

I'm not sure how making Mercer Row into a parking area would mesh with it being a pedestrianised zone. Nevertheless, the question of extending the pedestrian zone from the Cornmarket out into other streets is worth consideration as Louth grows in size and its traffic becomes heavier.

I began this poll with no opinion either way on whether pedestrianisation is a good idea. It could create problems for delivery vehicles and shops awaiting deliveries, and it may prevent people from visiting. However, it could help to make the town safer for those on foot.

The poll

Should Louth town centre be pedestrianised on market days from Mercer Row to Eastgate's junction with Northgate?

I put this question to 100 people who passed through the town centre on Saturday 28th June. 80% of those who responded said they were from East Lindsey. That figure doesn't accurately reflect the number of visitors from outside Louth, because a number of people declined to comment on this poll because they weren't from the area.

56% said "yes", against 30% who opposed pedestrianisation. 4% gave "maybe" as their response, whilst 10% said "don't know".

Visitors' views

Of the non-residents, 14 people, or 70%, were in favour of pedestrianisation. Two non-residents were against it, whilst one responded "maybe" and three "don't know". Since there were only 20 people in this group I don't think there's anything to read into this split between the views of locals and people from outside East Lindsey.

Visitors' views

Louth isn't a stranger to more extensive pedestrianisation, since it happens on Bike Nights and various festivals and special markets during the year. However, these are rare occurrences which often take place on Sundays or evenings.

I don't think there's any urgency about implementing this, particularly since getting it wrong could cost the town money. But it's interesting that the idea is popular with some, at least according to this poll (which has a 10% margin of error). If this is representative of general public opinion in Louth then we could well see cars banned from Mercer Row and Eastgate for a trial period on market days.