Ashby Rambler's Blog Archive
Some rambling thoughts and observations on local and national issues.
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The Great Cold Ashby Lay-by Mystery.
by Ashby Rambler - 12:48 on 11 October 2011
If you approach Cold Ashby from the A5199 crossroads during school hours, you cannot fail to notice a number of double-decker buses and coaches - usually between two and six. These are parked, some side by side, on a beautifully surfaced area so long and wide that some of us now refer to it as 'Airstrip One'.
Oral history suggests that this expensive 'Mystery Lay-by ' began as a small parking space for the AA Box that once graced the site but which is, sadly, no longer with us. From this it appears to have insidiously increased itself .
The Parish Council were neither consulted nor informed of the resurfacing ( for which the Naseby Road was closed for several days) and are not at all happy that funds have been made available for this project when they are desperately seeking finance for their planned traffic-calming measures.
The Rambler would also point out that, at a time when Cold Ashby has suddenly ( and again without prior consultation) lost its service bus and the DACT bus is under threat, the presence of so many stationary buses on his patch seems, at the least, ironic!
However I am in favour of the buses and coaches parking there as by doing so they are saving fuel and emissions, keeping the school transport cost down.
They are causing no trouble or inconvienience to anyone in the village and I for one applaud this initiative.
I agree with points made by the 'Ashby Rambler' & comments by the first response (see above) and, while I respect the views of the second person's comment re. fuel- saving & emissions, I would point out that the buses parking on 'Airstrip One' seem not to relate to those involved with collecting / dropping back of Cold Ashby pupils for Guilsborough Schools (correct me if I'm mistaken on this) and that, in travelling through the village via Main St. & W. Haddon Road, they add greatly to the traffic problems re. volume, noise etc. experienced by local residents.
Public money could, indeed, have been much better spent!
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