SIR - The response by the chairman of Baldock Area Committee to the comments about parking bays at the top of the High Street in Baldock leaves us mystified. When has it been logical or cost effective not to do something right first time? Removing street

SIR - The response by the chairman of Baldock Area Committee to the comments about parking bays at the top of the High Street in Baldock leaves us mystified.

When has it been logical or cost effective not to do something right first time? Removing street lamps at a later stage in one operation, is to be less cost to the taxpayers, takes some believing.

Installing the parking bays quickly to give more room for parking and get people used to them. Really, do the drivers in Baldock need to get used to parking? They could practise in Tesco or use the 90-odd parking spaces 100 yards down the road.

We are sorry that the comments on streetscape design regarding parking bays were lost in translation. With the more than available space on Baldock High Street the parking bays built should surely have been of the layby entrance type allowing far easier access for half the cars parking from a main road.

In respect of round or square kerb configuration. In nature there are very few, if any, 90 degree angles. Where streetscape on paths and roads incorporate square corners, there is the inevitable accumulation of debris and leaves etc. The point was simply, that if a curved kerb line of access and departure to the parking bays was adopted nature would indeed assist with cleaning. A prevailing wind and/or rainwater along the gutter would move debris into the road where a mechanical sweeper would find it easy to collect, particularly if there is a slope.

Admittedly, if manual labour is readily available, it is also easily cleaned.

We do not disagree however, that square kerbed parking bays are used worldwide. The latter does not mean to say it is the best design/solution for Baldock, more that space and lack of thought were the criteria elsewhere.

Our original comments were meant, albeit unfortunately late, to be constructive. Even more significant, it was pointed out that taxpayers' money is being spent to revitalise a high street that in itself has stood the test of time for generations!

We all hope it proves to be money well spent.

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