Dying Town Centres ( rogerg posted on September 15th, 2023 )

Like many others, our local Town council has spent the last 50 years dissuading car owners to visit, encouraging buses instead. This might have worked if we had buses, but really we don’t, at least not practical ones like in a big city. Small towns also don’t have trams/subways/rail etc, yet still rely on all the surrounding suburbs and small villages for their visitors. It’s not economic to build these things into surrounding areas, just too expensive and everyone who wants/needs one already has a car.

The result of this policy has been the proliferation of out of town shopping centres, visited mainly by people in cars, i.e. people have other options. The huge increase in online sales in recent years has just accelerated the reduction in town centre footfall with covid the final blow.

So now that town centres really are dying (few live there and fewer go shopping there every year) what are we to do? How do you get folks to change habits quickly and visit the town centre? Yes some shops could be converted back into living spaces, but that takes time – lots of time. What will make me (and other grumpy old folks) want to visit again now (not 5 or 10 years from now)? I certainly am not going on a bus, mainly because they stop running through our village by 6pm so I can’t even get home from work!

Throwing a celebrity or two at it and then making a TV program about how lovely the shops are won’t cut it, the car owners have to be tempted back. They bring money and a means to take stuff home with them.

The other trend, and very topical, is the rise in ownership of electric cars. How about if town centres had free charging points, one for every car parking space, ICE cars not allowed there. This could be a quick win as no huge planning and building work is required and it can be rolled out gradually (obviously ASAP) as the chargers are installed. It also encourages those who have no place at home to park (and therefore charge) to switch to an electric car sooner rather than later.

Our local town still has this on it’s strategy website:- “Cycling, walking, buses, and trains are generally the focus for low-carbon transport development”. This is 2023 in a semi-rural area with a lot of hills. Winter is coming, we car owners are not getting on a bike or walking 6 miles to go for a coffee. The “Blueprint” has been worked on for some years now, pretty posters have gone up, but no digging has started….

There is literally no time to lose, every shop/cafe etc that closes reduces the reasons to visit. Get those grumpies into the town quick – they have time, and usually the money. It’s a win-win here surely:- clean cars plus people who need to do something while their car charges (like spending a little money).

If I was in charge the on-street parking would be free and every space would have (or soon have) a charger next to it, also free, starting now. ICE cars banned. Build it and they will come. Then do your “vision” and “Blueprint” when you have some time. Simples.

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Categories: general

Huddersfield A&E to relocate to Prestatyn ( admin posted on February 20th, 2016 )

The catastrophic PFI deal in nearby Halifax 20 years ago means that Huddersfield local NHS services need to find more savings along with introducing 24hr care. Keeping patients awake all night to care for them will be a challenge but local managers are determined to have a go.
The major saving will be to relocate all the A&E services for Yorkshire to North Wales, which are very under utilised in the winter but a popular holiday destination for many Huddersfield residents in the summer. The additional distance is also seen as an advantage, for instance:
– fewer patients will arrive alive but diesel is cheaper than drugs, doctors and nurses
– fewer timewasters will make the journey just to keep warm, and there isn’t a bus
– drunks will be more sober on arrival after a 2 hour trek down the A55 and therefore easier to discharge
Other places were also considered with top contenders Brittany and Cherbourg only just missing out as the French still refuse to acknowledge the existence of “le weekend”.

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Categories: humour

World Community Grid ( admin posted on May 28th, 2013 )

My current WCG Status.

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Categories: education, general

New Desktop Picture ( admin posted on August 20th, 2012 )

A superb new picture of XH558 during a display on the south coast:-

Vulcan XH558

Vulcan XH558

Please visit www.vulcantothesky.org for more information.

More stunning pictures and video here.

 

 

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Categories: general

Cartoon – Failblog ( admin posted on April 23rd, 2012 )

Couldn’t resist this one:-

Thanks Failblog

 

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Categories: general

New year, new picture ( admin posted on February 22nd, 2012 )

The only flying Avro Vulcan XH558 needs our help again. Buy some stuff here.

This is what it looks like on my desktop:-

Screenshot

XH558

 

Would look (and sound) better in the air.

First flew in 1952 so 2012 is it’s diamond jubilee.

Designed (initially) by Roy Chadwick (of Avro Lancaster fame) and yet took to the air only 12 years after the Lancaster. An amazing bit of British engineering, which gladly never had to carry out it’s grim primary mission. Stretch the profile along the length and see the Concorde (really – it is uncanny).

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Categories: education, general

New Laptop (Lenovo Z570) ( admin posted on November 11th, 2011 )

I updated my laptop to unity (ubuntu 11.10), still with Lightnings though:-

After updating to proprietary drivers (big mistake) it took 2 days to figure out how to get back any graphics at all. Text login was not fun for the first  1 1/2 days, then sadly I started to like it.

So if anyone else has a Lenovo Z570 with Nvidia Cuda Geforce GT520M – leave it alone for the moment.

Here is the code I used to restore:-

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt-get install –reinstall xserver-xorg-core  libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
reboot

This is mainly for me in case I try it again, but maybe will help someone else.

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Categories: general

Lightning ( admin posted on April 29th, 2011 )

My favourite plane still remains the Lightning. So much so that I have one on my desktop.

This one with the superb background of Table Mountain (Capetown, S.A.)

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Categories: general

XH558 again ( admin posted on April 29th, 2011 )

Well the world’s only flying Avro Vulcan has moved home. They need more funding here

And here is a picture :-

Vulcan XH558

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Categories: education, general

Another year, another post ( admin posted on February 11th, 2011 )

This arrived in my inbox this week, and I couldn’t resist:-

“Autodesk 2008 Retirement

Gain momentum with a 2011 software upgrade before 15th March

It’s important to keep your software up-to-date so that you can compete effectively and successfully. Autodesk is retiring all 2008 releases on 15th March. If you upgrade before, then you can get your 2011 release at the upgrade price and benefit from the many enhanced features and functions that will greatly improve the way you work.

After 15th March, a 2011 release will only be available at the full licence price!”

So if the software you use every day is approaching 3 years old, you can no longer get updates as it no good any more. This is ridiculous of course.

It can be argued that the speed of development in software forces frequent upgrades (mainly due to bad coding rather than “new” features which will help the user, in my opinion). There is nothing more disruptive to work than a major upgrade to some piece of software that was working perfectly yesterday. You then have to change all the settings back to where you had them, reset the links on the server, put the kludge back in that gets the printer to work etc. etc. Not to be done lightly. But my real objection is the big threat attached, and the urgency required. Many businesses and individuals cannot just shell out hundreds at the whim of a software company – they want to do it when the time is right for them.

Also, what if we imagine this policy attached to other aspects of life:-

“General Vehicle Motors 2008 Retirement

Gain momentum with a 2011 vehicle upgrade before 15th March

It’s important to keep your vehicle up-to-date so that you can compete effectively and successfully. General Vehicle Motors is retiring all 2008 vehicles on 15th March. If you upgrade before, then you can get your 2011 vehicle at the upgrade price and benefit from the many enhanced features and functions that will greatly improve the way you drive.

After 15th March, a 2011 vehicle will only be available at the full retail price, no trade-ins!”

This would apply to my car, which is perfectly servicable, and will probably remain so for many years to come. There may be some benefits to an upgrade now, but the savings willl never cover the costs.

With regards to CAD software, jump ship to bricscad (www.bricsys.com) and get a more sensible and less arrogant approach.

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Categories: general

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