East St improvements - What on Earth?

Earlier I went for a wander down East St to pick up some shopping. The first thing I noticed was that the road is now apparently open again. The next thing I noticed was what has been done. Have they actually finished the 'renovation'? The road is crossed by strips of shoddily done tarmac (between Butts and the Salvation army shop they appear to have run out of tarmac at the edge of the road). The bus stops have been 'improved' by covering the raised areas with the same tarmac which is totally out of character with the pavement that runs up to it (ie you have brick cobble style paving then a damn great stretch of black tarmac). The lamps, as has been reported extensively, have been removed and replaced with lamps that appear to have been left over from a supermarket car park scheme and the street furniture/bollards remain in a tatty state.

It looks absolutely hideous and an older gentleman summed it up nicely with a rather un-PC comment to his wife..."Looks like the council have been fleeced by a pikey tarmac gang!". If I was whoever has paid for this I would be demanding my money back. Rather than improving the area it has made it look worse than ever.

The refurbishment is not finished yet! We still have new benches & litter bins to be installed.  The road resurfacing will take place from 19 April for 4 days when the road will be closed to traffic again.  There will then be a deep clean of the pavements as there will be a lot of dirt around after the resurfacing.  A new traffic management order will be coming in to place to restrict traffic.

The East Street Traders Association (ESTA) is fronting a relaunch on Saturday 8 May.  At 11.00 am we will be officially re-opening the street and we have invited someone to do the honours.  The Evening Post will be running a piece shortly saying what we're doing in more detail when we have things confirmed.  It will be a great day for East Street.

there are three of those shiny metal bike loops near the 'tarmac' bus stop and one of them is on the tarmac slope itself, so that if you were to chain an adult bike there some people wouldn't be able to get past it properly and would have to step off onto the road to get round it.  However unfinished the refurb is, that bike loop should be removed - there is room for it on the flat section behind the other two. It's in the wrong place right now.
It's good to hear that the road surface will be done and that the old litter bins and cheese grater seats will be replaced. I did wonder if, as often can happen in these kind of projects, the installation of the cameras had soaked up the funds and so there was skimping on other details. I personally think the cameras are over-kill - I walk up East Street twice a week in the evening after 8.30pm and there's hardly ever another person in the street but me.
At the moment the refurb keeps reminding me of a time when I came across a turnstyle built into a remote countryside bus stop, it was to keep the imaginary crowd of people in order when the bus finally came. It was one of the funniest sights I've ever seen.

The bus stop outside Wilkinsons is as wide as a train platform and constructed in a range of different building materials and with a nice little step down which people might be tempted to sit on, and maybe have a drink or five?  Then when you get down to the second bus stop, you just can't help thinking the money must have run out. I saw an elderly woman waiting there the other day, and because there is no bench, she perched herself uncomfortably atop one of those attractive 'iron men' that line the edges of East Street.  That's not to say that the iron bollards aren't useful to some East Streeters - very drunk men can wend their way safely home by staggering from one bollard to the next all the way down.

Sidderley,
thank you for letting me know.  When I am able to, as a Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator, I do attend PACT meetings, and did know about the focus on drinking and anti-social behaviour focus.  And, since I wrote the above, I worked out for myself  that the second busstop must have been temporary.
You say find out the facts first, but where might I have been able to do this at the time I was interested in the project? There was one notice on a piece of A4 paper pinned inside a noticeboard behind a badly scarred plastic cover that did give me a tiny piece of information. But it would have been good if the progress of the refurbishment had been placed somewhere strategic in the street so all passersby could know precisely what was happening. For example, I have 'supposed' that the big holes being made in side streets off East Street are for the planting of trees, but imagine that someone like Wilkinsons had notices in their window that described the ongoing process to the users of East Street, and these would be replaced when new parts of the process were underway, don't you think that this would have been a good thing?
Perhaps then, I could ask you where the containers for recycling plastic waste have been relocated to? Mine is building up. I noticed on one of those 'moving' advert boards a reference to plastic recycling, but can't for the life of me figure out what it means. It refers to something called 'a station.' Does this mean reclycling bins are now at the central station in Bristol, or Bedminster Station, or does 'station' mean plastics recycling station, and if I'm clever enough, I'll be able to figure that out too? If not, then it'll be my fault, I guess.
However, what is happening in East Street is good, and I don't have complaints about the physical improvements, I'm not whinging for the sake of it, but 'jumpimg to conclusions' as you phrase it,  is precisely what results from lack of imformation.

I'm not in the slightest bit angry, or having a go at you, how on earth do you deduce that from what I've written? You do appear to be informed, which was why I asked you, thinking you might know. 
The recycling was off East Street in one of the side streets on the right as you look down from the top.  Anyhow sorry I spoke, I'll make sure I don't do it again.
Becca.

I think the improvements are shaping up nicely. It can't be expected to look amazing from the get-go and people like MrsW should have a bit of trust and patience while the works continue. If you've got a question, put it on here and hopefully someone will know the answer.

Having said that, I can understand why people panic and jump to the wrong conclusions. There have been some awful decisions made affecting South Bristol over the years, but generally they have been imposed from the top-down, with no real local consultation. Whereas the East Street renovations appear to have been initiated by ESTA from the articles and comments I've read on this forum.

From what I've seen, I'm looking forward to a tree-lined street, a nice environment for everyone to do a bit of shopping and socialising.

With the focus from PACT meetings the police are working on the street drinking situation and a sustained effort is what is needed there.

In the months and years to come, I'm sure it will look very good and become a much more pleasant place to visit during the day and evening. ESTA deserve praise and support for their efforts. It must have taken a lot of hard work and time on the part of people who are presumably pretty busy already!

Good point Shalamar7! Hopefully they'll be consistent with the aim of improving the local environment, support the community and refuse the proposal. Otherwise that's money they may as well of burnt.