No coach park plans for the Little Chapel
TRAFFIC safety measures could be introduced near the Little Chapel, but creating a coach park is not on the agenda, Little Chapel Foundation chairman John Silvester has said.
At this week’s open planning into improvements planned for the site, many of the representors raised concerns about traffic safety and the parallel parking of tourist coaches in the road.
Some suggested that a coach park should be created on land under the responsibility of the foundation across the road from site.
Mr Silvester said they had looked at the idea, but it was not possible.
‘The brothers [who previously owned the site] said to us that we would need this field for coach parking, as this has been a problem,’ he said.
So the foundation had approached the planners to suggest this idea.
‘But the Development & Planning Authority said this was prime agricultural land and that precluded it from development,’ Mr Silvester said.
‘It would not be possible under the current law.’
However, that does not mean the foundation has not been taking traffic safety in the area seriously.
Mr Silvester said they had been speaking with local coach companies and it was hoped in future that no more than four coaches would be parked on the road there at any one time.
That, along with the 14 car parking spaces that will be created in the site, would mean that up to 250 people could be on that site at any one time.
‘There have been in the past six, eight or even ten coaches there, and we thought that was unacceptable,’ Mr Silvester said.
The foundation is looking to meet with the parish constables, Traffic & Highway Services and Blanchelande College to discuss what other changes could be imposed to make the area safer.
This could include a pavement as well as a crossing at the bottom of the valley, which would allow school children to access the bus stop on the other side of the road safely.
