Local News Catch Up

After two days with no posting due to work commitments its time for a quick run down of a few stories in the local press over the past few days:

From This is Plymouth:
On the transport front, more than £28million is to be invested in improvements including bus facilities for the mobility-impaired, better bus information systems, pedestrian safety schemes, park- and-ride, road repairs, road safety schemes and cycling facilities.

It interesting that better bus information systems is still listed - these are long awaited. We were promised the full bus stop real time display would have been up and running a year a go. The scheme to be able to send an sms text and get the next bus times from any bus stop should have been up and running last year. Lets hope that this will finally come into being at last. The current half baked system is only of use in the City Centre - there is nothing at Derriford which is the second busiest bus stop in Plymouth - after Royal Parade!

"If Plymouth wants to make an impact, one of the best things it could do is to close the airport and install a huge wind farm," he said. (Roger Creagh-Osborne, area co-ordinator for the Campaign for Better Transport)

"That would make Plymouth into a real flagship and provide a significant part of the city's energy needs. It would be a real statement that would put Plymouth at the forefront and bring people here to see what can be done."

Plymouth does have to make up its mind what to do with the airport - either expand it or close it down completely but replace it with a wind farm? It does seem strange to me that a group campaigning for better transport wants to close down the airport. A wind farm is going to do nothing to improve transport anywhere. High speed rail links are never going to happen.

Staff at Derriford Hospital will have an easier time getting to work if plans by the city council to extend the George park-and-ride car park are approved.The council wants to bring the car park up to 731 spaces, and of those 250 would be for hospital staff

Its good to see that plans to expand the site are at last being put forward. There is plenty of capacity on the excellent bus service. Lets also hope that this includes the promised plans to open up access into the site from all directions and not just City bound traffic.