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Lerwick town centre


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I've heard lots of stories about the Cruise Ship tourists doing a lot of window shopping but rarely actually buying anything. I wonder if it's because they are simply not wanting to weigh themselves down with piles of souvenirs, that they'll have to cart around the rest of their trip. I'm sure they see many items that would be a lovely souvenir but think twice before buying, working out the logistics of packing the item in with the two weeks of clothes etc they have. Bear in mind most have flown in to the Port they left from, so baggage restrictions apply.

I dreamt up a possible solution. Imagine a craft fair crossed with Argos. A shop full of examples of the souvenirs, but none ever leave the place, instead purchases can be made (completely cashlessly), shipping details taken, items are sent in the post, and by the time the tourist has got home the souvenir is waiting in their doormat. I believe some Street shops will offer this as an alternative to over-the-counter cash sales. Could there be a place on the Street for an Argos-style local-artisan outlet? Also would make a great shop-front for the many talented Shetland makers/artists.

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Traffic calming equates to complete traffic avoidance for many including myself. I’m happy to avoid the street completely because of it, apart from the main post office (why is it still there). So consider many who now choose the shopping centre or tesco instead.

 

There is free parking, even outside traffic calming, but it also screams awkward. Old swimming pool car park or fort where you try to get close or “lucky” but end up u-turning or reversing inamongst others doing the same, or end up on an unexpected hillwalk that doesn't bear fruit for the effort. I will pick the path of least resistance everytime when I shop, like others.

 

Are we overprovisioning for tourists, who I dont think actually want to accumulate brick a brack at every port but instead want to buy experiences? I believe we are and the balance is now wrong.

Edited by tooney1
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If all one has to worry about in the world is traffic humps, then you have little to worry about. By avoiding the traffic calming they are making it easier for me to cross the road though, so thanks for that.

 

As a nation we have got too used too parking outside where we need to shop. There are many more able-bodied people who could show a little consideration to those less able by parking further away. I won't hold my breath though. Those people who could walk a little further to the top of the swimming pool car park do manage to do so when it is snowing, when there is a chance of their car getting stuck on of the lower levels.

 

The tourists do seem to buy small less expensive items. They also seem to like the charity shops. We need to remember that we are one of many locations that they visit. I suspect we are well down the glamour index, and what we are known for, woolen products, can be very costly when you look at the initial layout.

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Traffic calming equates to complete traffic avoidance for many including myself. I’m happy to avoid the street completely because of it, apart from the main post office (why is it still there).

 

What's the problem with the traffic calming measures?

 

 

Whose going to drive on a bumpy road when they can drive on a smooth one when it makes no difference to getting what you're needing to get.

 

Folk have been avoiding going to the street for at least 50 years, probably longer, as they simply didn't want the hassle of festering around in Esplanade traffic, and the more humps and bumps and wobbly kerbs and crossings you add to the place, the more that number of avoiders becomes.

 

I know the traffic is sod all in comparison to elsewhere, and I accept that many folk aren't in the slightest bothered by it, or the humps and bumps etc. But that doesn't alter the fact some folk hate it, nor does it change their opinions that lead them to do so.

 

Compared to the other main throughfares in the toon (Lochside, King harald St. etc), the Esplanade always has been a nasty little bottleneck that was to be avoided, and the more obstacles that are added to it the worse it gets.

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....the more humps and bumps and wobbly kerbs and crossings you add to the place....

 

There's probably about 4 or 5 sets of speed bumps been added recently, the same number of crossings there's been for decades and I don't know what you mean by 'wobbly kerbs'

Edited by Davie P
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By 'wobbly kerbs' I mean like how they extended the kerb at Don Leslie's door the other year and completely changed the shape of the junction, all the bits and pieces of 'no mans land' thats kerbed off every here and there along the west side at the back of the old chemists, S&S's, Makays etc as far as at least the Thule, the bits and pieces around that 'aircraft hanger' bus shelter, and again around that crossing they put in between the oil office and what was Robertson's, alongside what was Tod's, plus others. That silly little 'wall' thing opposite Don Leslie's comes to mind....

 

None of that was there even 30 years ago, and its all yet more obstacles getting in your way to negotiate around. The Esplanade was irritating and frustrating enough to drive through, unless in the middle of the night when it was it was a straight road with a straight kerb. With everything thats been added to it since, its much easier, quicker and certainly much better for your blood pressure to go elsewhere for everything that can be gotten elsewhere.

 

The crossings you could just about tolerate, as they served a useful purpose, the humps were the final straw, as they serve none. Nobody could 'speed' on the Esplanade at a time of day when it was busy with pedestrians anyway. There wasn't room to do so for all the clutter of vehicles, people and kerbs.

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Do you think that is maybe the point? To keep all but necessary traffic away from the esplanade. As you said it has been a bottleneck for years.

I hardly ever drive along it but manage to get to the street most days when home. There are plenty of free parking places within a few minutes walk of the street but to be honest usually get parked at the fort.

I also don't recognize this deserted street that some people describe. The street has a right good buzz about it with plenty of folk walking about even later at night. The two new eateries have been excellent with plenty of folk popping in for a drink coffee and chat.

I imagine things will quieten down again now that winter is upon us but this last year my outlook on the street has been much more positive and I have been using the shops there a lot more.

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There certainly was buses using the street in the past. The "airport bus" used to arrive and leave from Leask's Travel Agents (the original one which is now a hairdressers between the icare and Goodlads solicitors). Granted they didna drive from the Cross to the Fort (bit tight at Stove and Smith's) but they certainly traversed the street after the New Church Road was opened. When it was just Church Lane access only the smaller vehicles could make the turn at the Post Office.

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There certainly was buses using the street in the past. The "airport bus" used to arrive and leave from Leask's Travel Agents (the original one which is now a hairdressers between the icare and Goodlads solicitors). Granted they didna drive from the Cross to the Fort (bit tight at Stove and Smith's) but they certainly traversed the street after the New Church Road was opened. When it was just Church Lane access only the smaller vehicles could make the turn at the Post Office.

Thanks. Didn't know that.

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There certainly was buses using the street in the past. The "airport bus" used to arrive and leave from Leask's Travel Agents (the original one which is now a hairdressers between the icare and Goodlads solicitors). Granted they didna drive from the Cross to the Fort (bit tight at Stove and Smith's) but they certainly traversed the street after the New Church Road was opened. When it was just Church Lane access only the smaller vehicles could make the turn at the Post Office.

Perhaps you could explain, in any way at all, why it would be a good idea for these buses to be going the same way now?

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Do you think that is maybe the point? To keep all but necessary traffic away from the esplanade. As you said it has been a bottleneck for years.

I hardly ever drive along it but manage to get to the street most days when home. There are plenty of free parking places within a few minutes walk of the street but to be honest usually get parked at the fort.

I also don't recognize this deserted street that some people describe. The street has a right good buzz about it with plenty of folk walking about even later at night. The two new eateries have been excellent with plenty of folk popping in for a drink coffee and chat.

I imagine things will quieten down again now that winter is upon us but this last year my outlook on the street has been much more positive and I have been using the shops there a lot more.

 

It may well help keep the tourers, boy racers and general going no place road cloggers away, but its a double edged sword, as it also keeps away the "i'll just nip in owre a get me a doofercleeker' people as well, who, if they had gotten there, might well have been tempted to buy a few more bits and pieces from other shops 'seeing as Im here anyway'. Instead, "i'll just nip in owre a get me a doofercleeker' buyer goes elsewhere rather than hassle with it.

 

The street is deserted compared to 40 years ago, which is probably the latter end of its heyday. As soon as the boat went to Holmsgarth and grocers, butchers and bakers closed left right and centre, partly due to the Coop opening the first purpose built supermarket and partly due to lack of staff from people being tempted away by easier, better paid oil related jobs, by the 80's the street was a pale shadow of itself, and its been much worse in recent years. If its turned the corner in the last year or so, I'm afraid it has a hell of a long way to go to make back what its lost, and to those of us who were very familiar with the street of the 70's etc, it'll need to go quite a bit before any sense of 'improvement' really registers with us.

 

There's plenty of parking relatively close to the street, I'm not arguing that. What there isn't plenty of parking for is folk who just need to nip on to the street for two minutes, buy one thing in one shop, and be on their way again. The whole palaver of getting to and from under the fort, or the old swimming pool carpark, or even the pier, just isn't worth the trouble when you can get what you want someplace else in the town and be on your way again in quicker time and more easily than you can get in to any of those carparks.

 

If LL or anyone else wants to help the street, and seeing as they've blocked off many of the former parking spaces on the Esplanade with buildings, signs, pointless kerbs, bollards and whatnot, they could do much worse than make what few slots still exist on the west side of the Esplanade in to 15 or 30 min max stay ones. Give the "i'll just nip in owre an get me a doofercleeker' crowd a chance to be tempted to use the street again, and in the process try and tempt them to buy something else while they're there.

 

They might just be surprised at the difference it makes. After all worst case scenario is that they cream it in with fines from those who try and abuse the time limited system.

Edited by Ghostrider
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There certainly was buses using the street in the past. The "airport bus" used to arrive and leave from Leask's Travel Agents (the original one which is now a hairdressers between the icare and Goodlads solicitors). Granted they didna drive from the Cross to the Fort (bit tight at Stove and Smith's) but they certainly traversed the street after the New Church Road was opened. When it was just Church Lane access only the smaller vehicles could make the turn at the Post Office.

 

Earlier than that though (1950's and earlier?) I believe buses did go the whole lenght of the street. Granted they were 18 seaters and suchlike back then which could just squeeze through the Roost and S&S's corner, the same way as the NoS peerie flat bed lorries went through delivering from the boat to shops even after the move to Holmsgarth was completed. The bus stance used to be under the fort, and there was no way to get to it unless through the street, one way or another.

 

I don't know, but I would persume the bus stance only moved from the fort to the Viking when operators upgraded to bigger more modern buses that simply couldn't navigate the street.

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I wonder why the SIC narrowed the turn between the Esplande and Church road? Now two buses, vans or that can't pass without one stopping to let the other pass. Cars can pass fine but anything larger can't. I personally think that was the stupidest thing the SIC did last year with the road works. It stops the flow of traffic and will just be a matter of time before both vans/buses etc scrape against each other if it's not happened already.

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