It’s been a while but to be fair not a lot has happened to write home about. We had a little flourish of media attention when Diana Johnson was highlighting the problem of anti social behaviour in the area. We featured on Look North and in the Hull Daily Mail, then like yesterdays chip paper, it is quickly forgotten about. I know Diana has organised a petition or sorts asking for peoples views which can be found on her website and on the Avenues and Dukeries facebook page.
I can see this problem being brushed under the carpet completely when Diana and her team move out of the Avenues Centre to Bransholme which they are to do any day now. I’ve heard of a couple of attempted break in’s and I had my shop shutters smeared in graffiti recently, not for the first time either. But besides the odd drunk or druggie staggering past I cannot say I have seen much anti social behaviour on Chants. I know Princes Avenue and Pearson Park suffer from the all day drinking crowd but to be fair I think we are quite lucky on Chanterlands Avenue, for the time being.
News broke today about a new cycle lane from the city centre through to Cottingham. The council had tendered the work out and the scheme comes in at a cost of £900,000. The route is from Bond Street, Fountain Road, Pearson Park, Victoria Avenue, then crossing Chants to Bricknell Avenue onto Cottingham, where it ends. I imagine much of this cycle track is already in existence, the Fountain Road bit certainly is, crossing Beverley Road and following the old Railway Line, then I’m assuming they are going to follow the ten foot behind Victoria Avenue, onto Ella Street then down St Ninians walk onto Bricknell where the cycle lane will be on the road but separated from the cars by bollards. £900,000 sounds a lot of money for a system that in the main is already in existence. I wonder if any public seating or racks to park and lock up one’s bike are included in the plans ?
Andsalls corner is triggering a bit of local debate. Dorothy Lee from the Thursday Volunteer Ladies is getting asked why her team isn’t doing anything about it. Its not her job, and she and her team are volunteers anyway and have enough on. Andsall’s Corner is a project from another team of volunteers and is supposed to be a wild garden. Seems the trouble is it is getting too wild.
So if anyone knows who has taken on this corner of Chanterlands Avenue could you remind them the area is getting overgrown and needs some attention ? Likewise the four planters at the Spring Bank end of Chants. They were taken on by a firm called Interior Gardens, or similar and in return for having their advertising logo on the sides on the tubs they would keep them filled with plants, in the case plastic ones. They have been empty all year and people are now asking in the firm are still operational. I don’t know.
Heard about an ‘exciting’ new trade/service was considering coming to the Avenue, until they changed their minds, I wonder why ? and my shop now only trades from Monday to Friday.
That’s all folks.
Cheerio.
They are not following the ten foot behind Victoria Avenue at all or including Ella Street. The proposal is to install a cycle track the full length of Victoria Avenue all the way to St Ninians Walk. How they are going to fit that in is beyond me, Victoria Avenue is already chocker block with parked cars and the bit past Richmond Street which goes to a dead end is a nightmare now without having a cycle lane installed through it. Why cannot the cycle lane just go down St Ninians walk via Ella Street ?????
Then the bit from St Ninians to the Chants Ave and Bricknell Ave roundabout is a bit sketchy to say the least. I can see major chaos here and a loss of car parking spaces which are already at a premium.
It looks like the scheme has already been passed.
I don’t think we are getting told the full monty here either and there will be changes to be made that will foisted on us like, one way systems, permit parking and less car parking spaces for residents of Victoria Avenue and the northern end of Chanterlands Avenue and god knows what else. We live down Victoria Avenue and this is and tonights bit in the Hull Daily Mail is the first we have heard about. There was no mention of any of this when the councillors were shoving leaflets through our letter boxes last March.
Thanks for your comments Russ. I cannot give you any more information then I already have. But it does look as though Victoria Avenue is going to become the new cycle lane from Princes Avenue through to Chants. I also agree it does seem a bit uneccessary when there is a huge expanse of land behind Victoria Avenue made up of the ten foot and the land where the drain used to run and we all ready have a route via St Nininans way which is used as a cycle track . It must be cheaper to paint some lines down Victoria Avenue then it is to make the ten foot or grassed area accessible ? But why they are not considering using St Nininas Walk is a mystery.
There are more details including a map of theses proposed cycle lanes on the Avenues and Dukeries Facebook page.
Looked last night. The logo on the empty planters if Luxury Gardens. Not much luxury about those four empty ones. Mind you one has got a solitary weed growing out of it. You’d think the company responsible would have noticed how awful and bleak they look.
The new proposed cycle lane route got me thinking. So I got my bike out and rode down Victoria Avenue at the week end top to bottom. It is densely packed both sides of the road with parked cars and cycling down it when a car is either behind you or approaching isn’t exactly comfortable. But what surprised me, when I got to the Chants Ave end onto St Nininians Walk it is clearly signposted that walkway is a designated cycle track already and sign posted all the way to Ella Street and Newland Avenue.
So why the need to install another cycle track down Victoria Avenue ?