Previous Reflections

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ON THE CHAPTER AGENDA

The Very Reverend June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury (Wednesday 20th July 2005)

“Complaints have been received of the excessive speed of cars in the Close (especially tradesmen’s cars). It was decided to take steps to have the nuisance abated. The Chapter Clerk undertook to write to the Postmaster calling his attention to the excessive speed of the Post Office motor van through the Close.”

You would be forgiven for thinking this was an extract from recent Chapter minutes but it in fact comes from the Chapter meeting on 19th April 1938. And there’s an almost identical comment in the minutes of March 1912!

Like most Close residents I occasionally find myself wanting to remonstrate with those who speed through the Close or having to check my own desire to try to accelerate and try to fly across the humps. The safety of pedestrians, maintaining the peace of our surroundings, the sheer number of vehicles that want to access this limited space are issues that have obviously been with us for some considerable time. Just because we’ve lived with something for several generations doesn’t mean that we should ignore it, or despair of finding a better solution. We will all be interested to see whether the growing opportunities to ‘Park and Ride’ alleviates the pressure on traffic in the centre of Salisbury, and congratulate the District Council if it proves to be the case.

The current Chapter keeps traffic management under review and recognises that we need more than a few stern remonstrances or letters to the Post Master.

In the next year the Chapter hopes to produce a strategic plan which will set out some future priorities for the Cathedral and Close. This builds on the Conservation Plan which identified our key issues – including traffic management – and also on wide consultations which will continue throughout the year.

No projects or future plans can win support unless they appeal to all who are associated with the Cathedral and Close communities. In due time we hope that everyone will be inspired by our ambitions and support us as we look to increase the quality of our life.

Calming the traffic may not be part of the core purpose of the cathedral but it needs to be part, like so much else, of our future aspirations. It has, after all, been on the Chapter agenda for 93 years!

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