Further to my article earlier this month about concerns from residents about the state of the walkway from the railway station to Tesco Riverside and the fact that it is claustrophobic given the concrete barriers that Network Rail has insisted upon being in place as the adjacent roadway runs in parallel to the rail station concourse, I have now received the following useful update from the City Council's Director of City Development:
"We have now met with Network Rail and they have agreed that we can extend the Riverside layby to both the east and the west. Network Rail were concerned with the potential for accidental collision to their structure particularly at the new enlarged west access. We have mitigated their concerns by proposing 'Trief' safety kerbs at the entrance together with some protective bollards.
I have attached a copy of our plan showing our proposals. The remaining area from our proposed layby to Tesco roundabout has now had shrubs cut back providing much improved visibility and our proposals have reduced the length of high concrete containment barrier by 40% which will dramatically increase vehicular / pedestrian activity at the layby. Together these proposals should improve the security and visual perception of the area."
I view this as positive progress towards removing the claustrophobic nature of the walkway. The plans referred to above can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/riversidewalkway.