Two newly painted bollards have appeared in the Square on the Church Street ‘crossing’. The designs, an idea by local poet Rob Mason, have been placed as interpretations of Belisha Beacons, more usually associated with the Zebra crossing.
The Belisha
The Belisha Beacon was named after the Minister of Transport, Leslie Hore-Belisha (1895-1957) who added the beacons to pedestrian crossings in 1934, where pedestrians have right of way over vehicles.
Such crossings are becoming less common as light controlled traffic signals become more widely introduced. The designs also recognise that Whitchurch is reputedly the only town in the UK without traffic signals!
PC Richard Baldwin looks after one of the newly painted bollards!
Helping pedestrians!
These latest decorations have aroused much interest from the many people who have watched the decorations taking place as they tried to guess the result. As well as adding colour to the streetscape, is hoped that drivers may think more of pedestrians as they pass through the town, including the bus drivers who will be immediately confronted by one of these bollards as they wait in the bus layby!
Interest grows from afar…
The project to decorate the bollards continues to promote interest in the town centre with other areas of the UK now contacting the scheme in order to emulate it, including one quite major town. In addition the scheme recently made an out-of-the-blue appearance on an urban design website that promotes best practice : PRIAN.
More designs wanted…
There are still plenty of opportunities for designs to be submitted and community groups and businesses are also being encouraged to sponsor bollards to promote themselves.
Quiz Question:
Bottle of Beer to the first who answers this question correctly:
How long should a Belisha Beacon flash for?
The answer is somewhere HERE
Send your answers to
enquiries@whitchurchbollards.org.uk
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The Whitchurch Art Project is funded by SEEDA
