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Tombland is the dead centre of Norwich, it's an old joke but actually sort of true. Tombland is where the ancient city of Norwich in norfolk was born. It was the cross roads of two routes which became a market place and around which the city grew. Tombland should be the architectural gem in the heart of Norwich. The road through Tombland is one of the most cycled routes in the old city, if not the most cycled.
But Tombland has a problem. The city transport plan which was born in 1945 and refined in 1963 was based around the idea of "ring and loop" - an inner ring road with traffic only being allowed into the old centre via loops of roads which didn't allow cross city travel. This was never completed and the eastern half of the ring was never built and now will never be built.. There are only three traffic entrances into the city from the north east, east and South east and one of these passes through Tombland. The ancient square is therefore bisected by a major arterial road.
A few years ago the Norwich City Council was given a large amount of money from the Cycle City Ambition Grant to build cycling infrastructure. One of the routes - the Pink pedalway - passed through the northern half of Tombland. The new route was an entirely new idea, not actually a bad idea but not an established route. So nothing got built to serve the existing riders, instead a new section of off-road track was created just to serve the new route. The trouble was it cost a fortune because obviously the whole frontage of the Erpingham gate cathedral entrance had to be rebuilt in a very expensive way, all paid for from cycling grant money. A section of cycle track 112 meters long cost hundreds of thousands of pounds was all we got. Probably the world's most expensive cycle track which very few riders could use. It crossed Tombland with a light controlled crossing.
Now the other half of Tombland is being tarted up with a grant from Transforming cities, with the stated aim of improving public realm, cycling and walking. What this entails is removing about 10 m of the existing cycle track, removing the safe light controlled crossing, putting two bus stops in the road and removing the safe access to another cycle route toward the station. While the work is being done, all the cycle routes were shut and signs saying get off and push went up.
Normal for Norfolk you might say. Read about the whole sorry mess here on the Norwich Cylcing Campaign website
A footnote to this, because so much money was spent on the useless section of cycle track in Tombland, there was no money left to build proper cycle tracks on the very busy cycle route to the university of East Anglia, the avenues
Good eh?
But Tombland has a problem. The city transport plan which was born in 1945 and refined in 1963 was based around the idea of "ring and loop" - an inner ring road with traffic only being allowed into the old centre via loops of roads which didn't allow cross city travel. This was never completed and the eastern half of the ring was never built and now will never be built.. There are only three traffic entrances into the city from the north east, east and South east and one of these passes through Tombland. The ancient square is therefore bisected by a major arterial road.
A few years ago the Norwich City Council was given a large amount of money from the Cycle City Ambition Grant to build cycling infrastructure. One of the routes - the Pink pedalway - passed through the northern half of Tombland. The new route was an entirely new idea, not actually a bad idea but not an established route. So nothing got built to serve the existing riders, instead a new section of off-road track was created just to serve the new route. The trouble was it cost a fortune because obviously the whole frontage of the Erpingham gate cathedral entrance had to be rebuilt in a very expensive way, all paid for from cycling grant money. A section of cycle track 112 meters long cost hundreds of thousands of pounds was all we got. Probably the world's most expensive cycle track which very few riders could use. It crossed Tombland with a light controlled crossing.
Now the other half of Tombland is being tarted up with a grant from Transforming cities, with the stated aim of improving public realm, cycling and walking. What this entails is removing about 10 m of the existing cycle track, removing the safe light controlled crossing, putting two bus stops in the road and removing the safe access to another cycle route toward the station. While the work is being done, all the cycle routes were shut and signs saying get off and push went up.
Normal for Norfolk you might say. Read about the whole sorry mess here on the Norwich Cylcing Campaign website
A footnote to this, because so much money was spent on the useless section of cycle track in Tombland, there was no money left to build proper cycle tracks on the very busy cycle route to the university of East Anglia, the avenues
Good eh?
