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davieG

Is the City of Leicester a dump?

By davieG, in General Chat

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davieG

davieG

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Busy A50 into Leicester city centre could be narrowed to create cycling and pedestrian space

By danjmartin  |  Posted: January 20, 2015

9356047-large.jpg

Northgate Street

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One of the busiest roads into Leicester city centre could to be narrowed to create more room for pedestrians and cyclists.

The A50, through Frog Island, has been earmarked for work as part of a £26 million scheme to regenerate the wider run-down area around Leicester’s waterside.

The council has revealed details of the plan for the Northgate Street section of the road,  part of the main link from the city to Junction 22 of the M1, in a consultation it has launched on the its waterside rejuvenation proposals.

Those plans include the construction of potentially thousands of homes and new businesses on disused industrial sites.

Northgate Street is currently three lanes wide, though the centre lane is not used and has been marked with white hatching.

Under the proposal the carriageway would be narrowed to the two lane minimum for a two-way bus route with tree planting and a pedestrian route on one side and a segregated two way cycle lane on the other.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby carried out a similar scheme in Newarke Street and is currently considering giving over a lane of traffic to cyclists in Welford Road.

He has also approved current plans to give a lane of traffic on St Nicholas’ Circle over to cyclists and pedestrians.

Cyclists have welcomed the scheme but some motorists say he is adding to the city’s congestion problem.

Sir Peter said: “There is a lot of dead, unused space because of the hatching down the middle of the road.

“We can make use of that.

“It is a very busy road and it is congested but the big sticking points are the junctions which we will improve.”

He said the work to improve the A50 would be right at the front end of the 15-year waterside scheme and could start as soon as this summer.

Nizar Teja, who runs Digital Print Leicester on Northgate Street, said: “I think its a bad idea. The pavements are already really wide down here and there is hardly any passing pedestrians. I think they could spend their money better elsewhere.”

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Busy-A50-Leicester-city-centre-narrowed-create/story-25894124-detail/story.html#ixzz3POJ09B4Q 

Follow us: @Leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook

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Bellend Sebastian

Bellend Sebastian

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Posted

Busy A50 into Leicester city centre could be narrowed to create cycling and pedestrian space

By danjmartin  |  Posted: January 20, 2015

9356047-large.jpg

Northgate Street

 Comments (6)

One of the busiest roads into Leicester city centre could to be narrowed to create more room for pedestrians and cyclists.

The A50, through Frog Island, has been earmarked for work as part of a £26 million scheme to regenerate the wider run-down area around Leicester’s waterside.

The council has revealed details of the plan for the Northgate Street section of the road,  part of the main link from the city to Junction 22 of the M1, in a consultation it has launched on the its waterside rejuvenation proposals.

Those plans include the construction of potentially thousands of homes and new businesses on disused industrial sites.

Northgate Street is currently three lanes wide, though the centre lane is not used and has been marked with white hatching.

Under the proposal the carriageway would be narrowed to the two lane minimum for a two-way bus route with tree planting and a pedestrian route on one side and a segregated two way cycle lane on the other.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby carried out a similar scheme in Newarke Street and is currently considering giving over a lane of traffic to cyclists in Welford Road.

He has also approved current plans to give a lane of traffic on St Nicholas’ Circle over to cyclists and pedestrians.

Cyclists have welcomed the scheme but some motorists say he is adding to the city’s congestion problem.

Sir Peter said: “There is a lot of dead, unused space because of the hatching down the middle of the road.

“We can make use of that.

“It is a very busy road and it is congested but the big sticking points are the junctions which we will improve.”

He said the work to improve the A50 would be right at the front end of the 15-year waterside scheme and could start as soon as this summer.

Nizar Teja, who runs Digital Print Leicester on Northgate Street, said: “I think its a bad idea. The pavements are already really wide down here and there is hardly any passing pedestrians. I think they could spend their money better elsewhere.”

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Busy-A50-Leicester-city-centre-narrowed-create/story-25894124-detail/story.html#ixzz3POJ09B4Q 

Follow us: @Leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook

 

 

SPS could shut everybody up in seconds just by saying that the alternative is a work place parking levy or congestion charge.

 

Careful what you wish for.  As an aside, these projects are worthwhile for the entertainment the comments sections of these stories provide me with alone

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deejdeej

deejdeej

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All of these mercury articles have somebody saying "this is shit don't do it", frog island is a shithole but it's the buildings that make it a shithole not the pavements or the lack of trees

Frog island and Narborough Road are absolute dives. No wonder Leicester is regarded as a shit hole by most when these places are their first impression.
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fuchsntf

fuchsntf

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Having been round the world and visited/worked in loads of cities across Europe, Asia, America, Australasia I still live in Leicester because its a good (not great) city.

I live in the West End which is a brilliant place to live, loads of bars, restaurants, good shops for all kinds of things, nice community and atmosphere. With all the work being done over the next 4-5 years along the Canal between Frog Island and Braustone Gate, including the Shires extension, the areas immediately around the existing city centre will improve massively.

Along with the work in the cultural quarter (the new theatre, old odeon, conversion of the warehouses around the area, refurb of the Mercury Bulilding etc) the city will be vastly different in 5 years time. Indeed, 10 years if not 5 years ago the city was far worse than it is now and its thanks to the work done by the City Council/Regeneration Comittee that its a vibrant multi cultural city with areas such as New Walk, Great Central Way, Abbey Park, Viccy Park, DMH, Castle Park, West End, Clarendon Park, Space Museum, Belgrave that are great to walk around and get to know.

Mates who live in other cities and visit love Leicester cause of things like Summer Sundae, Comedy Festival, Leicester Expo, the Leicester Market etc and the quality of bars and restaurants. Give it time then the shopping will be there as well.

I'll ditto this. Still prefer German cities, and French towns but Leicester and the whole shire is slowly turning it around.15 years ago it was a dump with poor councils.Though it still needs along way to go.Road and pavements with 10year renovations because of shoddy workmanship

Sheffield was doing well, but havent been for a few years.

London, the city is a dump, but many suburbs are looking up and being redeveloped.

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fuchsntf

fuchsntf

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Posted

Would love to see city competely cut off from traffic...ie from Humberstone gate-Granby st, Highcross st. Bus station,

Belgravegate. No busses, only delivery vans, on certain days for various shops.

maybe re-invest, with top marketting, the whole of the covered Leicester market, including market stall type of eaterys

selling local dairy, vegetable produce, with fish market and delli's.Bakers, and English top cheeses.

Dont know it it would go, but set up the Cornmarket has a hotel and restaurant, with faire to suit all.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Filbert Walker

Filbert Walker

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Posted

Just had a mate stay who hasn't been to Leicester for 13 years....he lives in Canada, but he was blown away by how good the city centre is....

 

I initially thought his comments were taking the p#ss but he was serious. His list was:

 

Great shopping, street and mall.

 

Wonderful restaurants

 

History and culture

 

Very safe at any time of the day

 

Easy parking

 

He view is that once all the Richard stuff is completed people will come from all over to visit this strong vibrant exciting safe clean city.

 

Maybe Sir (soon to be Lord) Peter was right all along!!!!  Maybe we don't see the bigger picture living here every day.

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Finnegan

Finnegan

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Gallowtree Gate, Humberstone Gate etc and up towards the station is a shit hole but High Street, High Cross, "The Lanes, New Walk etc, what I'd call the top end of town, I think is pretty nice. Still improving, too.

Don't understand Matt's overall view of Leicester, to be fair.

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  • 3 weeks later...
davieG

davieG

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Leicester Silver Arcade half empty after £3m makeover

_81252305_arcadede27.jpgThe Silver Arcade opened in October 2013 after a £3m makeover

A Victorian shopping arcade is less than half full, 15 months after it reopened following a £3m makeover.

Natalie Powdrill, who has moved her hair salon out of the Silver Arcade in Leicester, said traders were "sold a dream" when they moved in.

She said not enough had been done to promote businesses and it needed a centre manager to deal with issues.

Estate agent Martin Herbert said "current retail conditions" were to blame.

Only eight out of 20 units in the arcade, which links Silver Street and Cank Street, are filled.

Ten units were occupied when the 19th-Century building reopened in October 2013.

'Nothing transpired'

Ms Powdrill broke a five-year lease to relocate Hair and Booty to another premises in the city centre.

"The building is beautiful and we absolutely fell in love with it," she said.

"The estate agent at the time sold us this amazing shopping experience. There were going to be big brand names downstairs, all independents from the first floor up.

"We were sold a dream basically and nothing transpired when we moved in."

Martin Herbert from agent Lambert Smith Hampton said tenants "were not promised anything that hasn't been delivered".

He said the landlord was "disappointed" with the footfall.

But he said businesses were "not willing" to contribute to the £30,000 a year needed to employ a manager for the centre.

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Head Honcho

Head Honcho

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Posted (edited)

The market is good.

 

It's a proper market.

 

Probably one of the good things about having so many immigrants is it's kept the market going.

The market is a disgrace. Most of the stallholders are struggling to make ends meet.

 

My family have had a presence on the market in one form or another since the 70's I myself started my working life on the market at the age of 13.

 

It needs to be levelled and either moved or significantly reduced in size .

 

Most of the current stall are taken up by current stall holders to prevent others using them.

Edited by Head Honcho
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purpleronnie

purpleronnie

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The market is a disgrace. Most of the stallholders are struggling to make ends meet.

 

My family have had a presence on the market in one form or another since the 70's I myself started my working life on the market at the age of 13.

 

It needs to be levelled and either moved or significantly reduced in size .

 

Most of the current stall are taken up by current stall holders to prevent others using them.

Haven't they invested 7million into redeveloping it including demolishing the market hall?  Haven't been for a while but that was planned wasn't it?

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Guest MattP

Guest MattP

Posted
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Gallowtree Gate, Humberstone Gate etc and up towards the station is a shit hole but High Street, High Cross, "The Lanes, New Walk etc, what I'd call the top end of town, I think is pretty nice. Still improving, too.

Don't understand Matt's overall view of Leicester, to be fair.

 

Sorry I missed this.

 

I see a lot of town centres and most of them are vastly better than ours. If you think High Street looks nice then well.....

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Finnegan

Finnegan

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Posted

High Street is moving in the right direction. I think the Soulsby space at the top was ill advised but it's slowly turning in to half decent restaurants and bars. Still some naff shit that could do with a makeover but it's infinitely better than Gallowtree Gate.

I appreciate there's much nicer places. Nottingham is a much more inviting city centre. But there's much worse too.

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Babylon

Babylon

Posted
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Leicester Silver Arcade half empty after £3m makeover

_81252305_arcadede27.jpgThe Silver Arcade opened in October 2013 after a £3m makeover

A Victorian shopping arcade is less than half full, 15 months after it reopened following a £3m makeover.

Natalie Powdrill, who has moved her hair salon out of the Silver Arcade in Leicester, said traders were "sold a dream" when they moved in.

She said not enough had been done to promote businesses and it needed a centre manager to deal with issues.

Estate agent Martin Herbert said "current retail conditions" were to blame.

Only eight out of 20 units in the arcade, which links Silver Street and Cank Street, are filled.

Ten units were occupied when the 19th-Century building reopened in October 2013.

'Nothing transpired'

Ms Powdrill broke a five-year lease to relocate Hair and Booty to another premises in the city centre.

"The building is beautiful and we absolutely fell in love with it," she said.

"The estate agent at the time sold us this amazing shopping experience. There were going to be big brand names downstairs, all independents from the first floor up.

"We were sold a dream basically and nothing transpired when we moved in."

Martin Herbert from agent Lambert Smith Hampton said tenants "were not promised anything that hasn't been delivered".

He said the landlord was "disappointed" with the footfall.

But he said businesses were "not willing" to contribute to the £30,000 a year needed to employ a manager for the centre.

 

It's a shame as the building is stunning inside, the sort of thing you'd see in bigger cities and reminded my of a few places in Liverpool. But there really is nothing in there, it's a dead space and god knows how any of them survive. It just needed that one brand name to kick it all off.

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Babylon

Babylon

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High Street is moving in the right direction. I think the Soulsby space at the top was ill advised but it's slowly turning in to half decent restaurants and bars. Still some naff shit that could do with a makeover but it's infinitely better than Gallowtree Gate.

I appreciate there's much nicer places. Nottingham is a much more inviting city centre. But there's much worse too.

It think the city is improving fairly rapidly to be honest, but there still needs to be huge investment. Money needs spending on Granby St and Gallowtree gate to link the station to High Steet in a more appealing way,

 

Having walked down High Street every day for the last few of years it's gone from a run down bomb site to perhaps the most thriving part of the city.

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