Lerwick town centre

[mikeyboy]

I noticed Tesco have now opened a mobile phone section where you can get contract phones on Tesco mobie, it is very small at the end of an isle with 1 guy standing there but I would imagine will do a good trade and probably yet another reason to stay away from Commercial street.

 

 

You could always buy those phones in Tesco but there is nowhere on the street to buy one.

[mikeyboy]

police are out trying to rid the street of any customers today seen them chasing away people from parking outside the pharmacy after all don't want people being able to park anywhere other than the supermarkets more good work by the sic

 

 

About time! Not many town centers in the UK are surrounded by cheap or free parking like Lerwick has. No excuse for driving or parking on the street unless you have a disabled badge.

[Ghostrider]

 

I noticed Tesco have now opened a mobile phone section where you can get contract phones on Tesco mobie, it is very small at the end of an isle with 1 guy standing there but I would imagine will do a good trade and probably yet another reason to stay away from Commercial street.

 

 

You could always buy those phones in Tesco but there is nowhere on the street to buy one.

 

 

What happened to the Camera Shop, have they stopped? They were selling phones as recently as a few weeks ago.

[Lerwick antiques]

Traffic on the street has divided views.

 

It is illegal to drive through da street until 5.30pm as that is what the signs at the market cross says.

 

Some ignorant drivers park right in front of shops door ways especially the shops at the cross, and have heard of cars parking so near to shop doors that customers can't get in or out of the shops.

 

All drivers with Blue badges are exempted.

 

So, if disabled drivers are allowed, then who are driving through da street?

 

A big majority of them are just going in circles basically nothing better to do. Other folk picking up friends/relations who are on the street and maybe a few shoppers, but why are shoppers driving through da street? there is no where on da street they can park.

 

Probably a majority going through da street to avoid the speed bumps on the Esplanade.

 

On the other hand, the public have turned quite lazy, and there is a awful lack of available parking close to da street.  

 

Folk find it better going to Bolts, co-op, tescos, etc due to easier access and plenty of parking within short walking distance of the shops doors.

[Urabug]

Why would anyone want to pay parking charges on the pier just to nip up to the Post Office to collect a parcel or for that matter to pick up a paper,so it is necessary to drive on that part of the street..

 

Some folk have busy schedules to keep and have to try and find time to fit in some of these mundane tasks .

 

I would say 5 to 10 mins parking to attend to these little but important tasks both for  businesses  and customers would be about right, but if one is going to see the bank manager or a solicitor something requiring  more time, then parking on the street is not an option.

[Ghostrider]

^ The SIC has a lot to answer for, as they seem to think just about everybody should want to pay for parking on the pier to get anywhere near the street. Since the pier opened the number of spaces available on the Esplanade must have reduced by around half if not more between M&Co. building on several, a humungous bus shelter next to where the pish hoose was, little bits of "pretty" kerbing and wavy wide paving spouting up everywhere, that weirdass wall thats not quite a wall at the back of Andersons, a closed off Harrison Square/Irvine Place plus making whats left all marked bays. There's really sausage all left unless a few around the Thule.

 

It all worked far better when folk squeezed in as best they could everywhere, common sense generally prevailed, and even with the far greater level of activity that was in the area back in the day, you generally found a bolthole somewhere to leave your wheels for 5 mins in a reasonable amount of time without having to resort to clack, clack, clacking over the concrete slabs of the hallowed main street, unlike now.

[mikeyboy]

 

 

I noticed Tesco have now opened a mobile phone section where you can get contract phones on Tesco mobie, it is very small at the end of an isle with 1 guy standing there but I would imagine will do a good trade and probably yet another reason to stay away from Commercial street.

 

 

You could always buy those phones in Tesco but there is nowhere on the street to buy one.

 

 

What happened to the Camera Shop, have they stopped? They were selling phones as recently as a few weeks ago.

 

It was contract phones that were originally mentioned which the Camera shop does not stock. I tried to buy a phone there a couple of months ago. They either had cheap but outdated or uber expensive. Not their fault as they can only stock a few phones.

[mikeyboy]

Strange when home I manage to park most days within a few minutes walk of the street and very rarely use the pier.

[Urabug]

Strange when home I manage to park most days within a few minutes walk of the street and very rarely use the pier.

That in itself probably shows the decline of activity on the street if you are able to find parking so easily. 

[shetlander]

 

 

Strange when home I manage to park most days within a few minutes walk of the street and very rarely use the pier.

That in itself probably shows the decline of activity on the street if you are able to find parking so easily.

In the (nearly) 25 years I’ve been driving I’ve never had any bother parking in what any able body could consider to be a perfectly reasonable walking distance of the street. Before that the same could be said of where wir folk used to park on a day in da toon - and that was before the extra spaces were added at the Swimming Pool, Market Green, Pier etc.

 

What has changed in that time is that folk have become too damned lazy. The ability to park right at Tesco’s/Bolts/the Co-Ops door seems to have bred an expectation that you should be able to do the same everywhere else.

[Ghostrider]

^ The trouble is what constitutes "a perfectly reasonable walking distance" is a flexi-definition.

 

Is walking from the new road, the pool carpark or the Viking to the street and back "a perfectly reasonable distance" when shopping on the street. If you're intending to spend an hour or more and visit several shops, almost certainly in most folks opinion, it is.

 

However, if you want one thing from one shop that will need for you to be in the premises no more than 60 seconds, whether walking the same distance is reasonable or not becomes a bit of a moot point, as if you can get the same purchase elsewhere more quickly, you're not going to waste the 15 or 20 mins it takes to make a one minute purchase there, when you can get to someplace else, make the purchase and be on your way again in less than 5 mins.

 

Shrinking the "it'll be okay leaving it here for 5" spaces on the Esplanade down to damn few cannot fail to have discouraged the nip in ower for a newspaper from Conochie's/condoms from Boots/packet of fags from Universal Stores type single purchases and sent them towards places like Laing's at Freefield, Bolts etc, or worse. Tesco!

[Lerwick antiques]

I often wonder what folk did when a car was a luxury item that few could afford. 

[MuckleJoannie]

Everything was within walking distance in the days before cars. There were grocer shops on the street in the 1970's but they all closed down. And there were peerie shops dotted all over the town so you didn't have to walk to the street for a pint of milk or a loaf.

[Property2017]

Noticed a skip outside lochside stores where they seemed to be gutting the place out, heard rumours of a chip shop, burger place , or just a revamped shop.

[Ghostrider]

^ Prime placement to supply +/- 1000 newly relocated teenagers with crisps, sweeties, pop, fags, Rizla papers, half bottles.................