Incidental Pictures of Romiley, (Part 7)
A journey through time and space with an Aiptek PenCam & an Olympus Digital – featuring pictures left over from the lamp post study and others

0  1  2  3  4  5  6  b7 red  8  9  x

2010/08/05

 45: Blink And You Missed It! 

Nothing much happened in Romiley in 2009 and the early part of 2010. The Pavement of Death continued to develop wobbly spots, and it was extended as far as the entrance to the rec. Then the contractors were given something really useful to do – build a traffic island at the Stock Dove. On the day before the next picture was taken, three blokes observed were messing about with the stump of the lamp post, connecting up the power supply. All in vain. The next day, the island looked like this:

The new traffic island, 2010/08/05

Forensic examination of the wreckage revealed that some careless driver had ploughed across the island from the west, flattening the lamp post and taking out the yellow sign with the arrow. The triangle of red barriers surrounded the sawn-off stump of the crushed lamp post. The next picture shows where the driver stopped. The bricks had been cleared away by the time your photographer arrived and the planters look surprisingly undamaged.

The new traffic island, 2010/08/05

2010/08/08

 46: An Island Restored 

The rebuilt traffic island, 2010/08/08

Three days after being wiped out, the island was back in good order. Which is more than can be said for the destroyed wall (position shown by yellow arrow).

The rebuilt traffic island, 2010/08/08

2010/08/21

 47: Official Vandals? 

Two weeks on, the island was reduced to rubble again. As the signs are intact, and it is full of official barriers, it looks like the contractors made a bog of things the first time around, and they have been told to knock it all down, dig up the kerb stones and start all over again. No wonder the council tax is so bloody high if Stockport Council's project oversight is so slack before the event.
   For the benefit of those interested in the history of trading in Romiley, our branch of Threshers went extinct along with the company but the building once occupied by the wine merchant has been brought back to life as a convenience store offering food, fags, booze and newspapers.

The rebuilt and redemolished traffic island, 2010/08/21

2010/08/25

 48: No wonder the Council Tax is so bloody HUGE 

Some genius has screwed up big-time. When the island was built, there was barely enough room between the kerb and the island for the wheel-span of a bus. But Stockport council didn't realize this until the island had been built and new kerbstones had been installed right along the Stock Dove's footprint on Compstall Road. So the island has been rebuilt with pointed instead of blunt ends, and it's narrower to give traffic more room. [see also the pictures in section 46]
   Worse, the workmen are now digging up the just-installed kerb stones and knobble tiles in front of the Stock Dove so that they can trim about a foot off the pavement to give buses and other large vehicles extra room. If it cost £250,000 to demolish the park area beside Romiley Forum and reconstruct it as an imagination-free zone, it must be costing about the same to mess about with the island.

The rebuilt and redemolished and rebuilt traffic island, 2010/08/25

Numerous people are now asking why they didn't just put a pedestrian crossing here and avoid all this expense and messing about.

2010/09/05

 49: Drastic surgery 

The dark area of tarmac on this side of the island shows how much was made to go away when it was rebuilt smaller. Similarly, the edge of the pavement has moved south by over the width of the base of a traffic cone at this point.

The rebuilt and redemolished and rebuilt traffic island, 2010/09/05

2010/09/08

 50: Finished at last? 

They were working here on a Saturday morning in the rain, then the gang disappeared the following week when it was dry. But they've finally got the re-shaped island surfaced, and the relaid kerb stones and knobble tiles tarmacked in. Meanwhile, the barber shop in the background (on the right of the pictures) has gone from shop-fitting to open for business.

The rebuilt and redemolished and rebuilt traffic island, 2010/09/08

 50a: All my sins washed away . . . 

Compstall Road was resurfaced in 2017, wiping out all evidence in the roadway of the island's demolition and reconstruction, and a chunk having been bitten from the pavement.

The island after road resurfacing in 2017

0  1  2  3  4  5  6  b7 red  8  9  x

 back to topCreated for Romiley Arts Federation by HTSP Web Division. © RAF, 2010.