I 'drove' along the seafront yesterday afternoon. It took 45 minutes to get from the arches cafes by Shorefield Rd to the Kursaal. This was at a time  (5.30 to 6.15)) when no work was happening on the City Beach area & the car parking was hardly being used so goodness knows what it is going to be like when people are going to want to back into the car parking spaces or get out of one; that will probably add another 30 minutes to the journey. 

For anyone who uses the front to and from work, I'd suggest getting a job in London, it will cut down your journey time!

I see from the signs that the City Beach work is not scheduled to finish until March 2011; leaving aside what this work does to improve the town for residents, anyone know why it is taking so long? Whenever I have passed the site I have never seen more that maybe 4 or 5 men working. Mostly there is just a couple working.

And just to complete the saga, I continued on to Shoeburyness and passed 3 cyclists all ignoring the cycle path altogether, despite it being the area where it is properly built without car parking next to it.

Calm down now! Take a deap breath......remember it is for a Better Southend, yes the BS thing.....

NigelT wrote on May 25^th, 2010 at 4:11pm:


Nope, deep breaths are a bit like the cycle lanes extensions; great idea but doesn't work !

Think I'd best carry on with my Victor Meldrew impersonation! 

It was the Classic Car run London to Southend.  Very good event.

Lets face facts Southend is a tourist town it needs to attract people to it to keep it going by sitting back and doing nothing Southend will end up like Margate, if you have not been for a while you should go and take a look at just how bad it is there.

The changes currently going on yes they cause disruption now but onve complete they will only be of benift to the town, the road closures are needed for seafront events to make them viable and safe without these events people would go elsewhere and thats something Southend must not let happen.

Shame i missed the classic car run did not see it advertised anywhere.

Theres nothing wrong with events, but why use the sea front.      There are plenty of other venues that could be used.

The bike rally has only ever had a seafront closure in place and that was last year then only from pier hill to the kursaal . We were told that the council couldonly shut the seafront 6 times a year. You need it shut during the airshow and the carnival, I think there is great potential with sefront events. But i fear the changes with the seafront ( i dont beleive they are improvements)Will never be fully exploited and we will have either lots of arty things like co-exist or festivals of other peoples cultures instead of our own.