No Through Road

I am saddened to hear that Romsey’s Bell Street is to be closed to traffic for six months or more while road work is under way. Saddened because it is part of the Hampshire town’s one-way traffic system, through the centre and is sure to create both traffic problems and interruption to business for the shops on the street.
It is all part of an ambitious town centre enhancement and for that, the town planners win my full support, especially if the anticipated street improvements make enhance the town centre for visitors and local people alike.
The work in Bell Street is due to get under way the first week of September and we’ve been warned it will last until next May, apart from a break over Christmas.
Planners say that pedestrians will still be able to get to the shops, so maybe I am being a trifle alarmed uneccesarily. But I for one would be very cautious of negotiating the present narrow pavements with roadwork’s going on all along the street.

Incidentally the street has its place in history and a plaque on the Town Hall records the fact that the body of King William Rufus was carried through this street after he was killed while hunting in the New Forest in August 1100.