Trust Life: parking, puffins and Persimmon
Welcome back to Trust Life! At the time of writing we are in the middle of the Puffin Festival, by the time of reading everyone involved should have managed to take a well deserved break. Organising a whole week of activities can be exhausting and time consuming, but hopefully everyone will have enjoyed the wide range of activities offered and we can get back to normal daily business again.
We have had some wonderful feedback from visitors who are enjoying the scenery, walks, talks, watery activities and hospitality of the local people. We had a couple in the office yesterday remarking on how unusual it was for people to smile and say hello! Wouldn’t we think the opposite? If anyone doesn’t acknowledge you, you automatically think there is something wrong! That’s what living in a close-knit community is like and of course we do live in the Friendliest Port.
Tenders for the construction of the Harbour Village are due to be returned in early June with the contract being awarded and work to commence on site at the beginning of July. Interviews for the Co-ordinators post will also be held in June, so things are moving on apace.
News on the Persimmon front has gone pretty quiet. I had hoped to see some activity during May but it would seem that yet again there has been a hold up. This time it’s the final design of the access on to the main road and the bus stand, which are included in ‘reserved matters’. Then there is some grouting work required to the site. I have been assured that these should be resolved relatively quickly, but we’ll see. After so many false starts I don’t feel confident in predicting anything.
We all know that parking is a major issue in the town so I was a little surprised when a recent ‘bench-marking’ exercise said that statistics taken on the day showed a huge percentage of parking bays were empty. Then we found out the exercise carried out was not over a weekend. The very time we have problems!
Collectively the town council, business club and development trust are haranguing NCC to try to form a solution. We will keep you informed of progress, but it has already been a very long process and while we feel we may be making some headway, I wouldn’t hold your breath!
Once again we offer our thanks to everyone who contributed to make the festival a success, no matter what your involvement we are grateful. Without your assistance it just wouldn’t happen – so as we are all puffin’d out, I’m signing off!
Julia & the Trust Team
julia@ambledevelopmenttrust.org.uk
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