Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge – Open Afternoon –
Please Come Along – We’ve Lots to Show You!!!!

On Saturday 2nd December, from 2-5pm, we will be hosting an Open Afternoon in the Town Hall, at the top of Sheep Street. We’ve lots to show you if you can come along.

You will be the first to see drawings and some actual architectural designs, for an option to add ramps to the present bridge, so making it a bridge for everyone. The Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge have had some wonderful help from Stratford architects Hawkes Edwards, along with lots of support from the Avon Navigation Trust, and the presentation you will see represents a viable option so that all Stratford Residents – and all our Visitors – will be able to use the bridge.

That’s not all!!!

You will be the first to see the results of the physical surveying of actual numbers of people who presently use the bridge – and records of people who have arrived at Lucy’s Mill and NOT been able to cross.

We’ve covered everyday of the week. We have surveyed early in the morning – and seen 60+ people an hour using the bridge. On a really sunny Sunday, that figure was well over 300 people. These figures are for Autumn use, so will be higher in Summer months. You will be able to see that the bridge is used several thousand times a week.

What we’ve also done is create a database model, breaking down our Town into small areas – such as Saffron Meadow and Old Town, Evesham and Banbury Roads, the residents of Bridgetown, visitors parking at Rec, people working in Central Stratford etc. This model can be used in conjunction with the physical surveys to show where people come from and where they go to.

You, as an individual Stratford Resident, can have a copy of this model and put it any figures you feel are appropriate. One of the key local statistics you could include is that there are more than 1000 people who claim a disability allowance and live in the locality. For many of these fellow Stratford residents, using Lucy’s Mill Bridge has never been an option.

There are two more displays you will be able to take a look at. The first will be all the entrants in the ‘Lucy’s Lift’ competition – and we will announce the prize winners!

The second will be a montage of pictures – pictures of many of the dogs who take a walk across the bridge, some everyday of the week! Thanks must go to all the owners who have allowed pictures of their wonderful animals to be taken.

You will be able to give your thoughts on everything you see. There will also be hard copies of the online survey that we are running. If you haven’t done so yet, please use the links below for \residents or \visitors. If you have friends who come to Stratford – whether once or twice a year, or a few times a month, please ask if they could complete the Vistors Survey.

Residents Survey for Lucy’s Mill Bridge Usage

Visitors Survey for Lucy’s Mill Bridge Usage

We are going to use TV screens to show you some of these presentations. You’ll be able to take a couple of minutes to watch then talk to ‘Friend’ about what you’ve seen. The more screens we can have available the better so if you are a Stratford Hotel (who has a screen that is used by conferences say during the week) might you be able to let us borrow it? Or it could be that you have a presentation screen you use as part of your business?

We’d also like to offer visitors some refreshments if possible. Saturday is going to be a really busy day with visitors but if you are a Stratford Cafe or hotel and could bake a few extra biscuits or little cakes, we’d love to be able to offer them to guests. As soon as you could say ‘yes’ we will promote your name in everything about this special day.

This will be the end of a busy year for the Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge. The one thing we haven’t been able to get you yet is all the background work done on the bridge in the past 10-15 years. We will ask Warwickshire County Council for what they can give us and hopefully start 2018 with this.

We have created two new surveys for Lucy’s Mill Bridge, one for Residents and the other for Visitors.

Please help by completing one of the surveys. Your responses will be collated to support the upgrading of the bridge for full access for all.

Residents survey – online: Residents Survey for Lucy’s Mill Bridge Usage

Visitors survey – online: Visitors Survey for Lucy’s Mill Bridge Usage

Or, download a pdf copy to print and send in.

Residents PDF: Residents Survey PDF FORM.

Visitors PDF: Visitors Survey PDF FORM.

To contact us, please use our contact form below:

[contactform email=”admin@lucysmillbridge.co.uk”]

FOLMB short film from Richard Eden on Vimeo.

LUCY’S LIFTS – FUN COMPETITION

Happy Holidays! No School for the Summer. Lots to do like holidays to go on and friends to see.

We hope you have a wonderful time but if you are looking for something special to do we’d LOVE it if you could help up with Lucy’s Mill Bridge. If you are 12 or under, this is something for you!

If you live on the ‘Town’ side of Stratford, you may not know that Stratford has three bridges. There is Clopton Bridge which you’ve been over in a car and next to it is the Tramway Bridge that you’ve walked over to get to the Rec – to go and play on the grass by the river or maybe if you’ve had a trip to the Butterfly Farm, or to go on the river in a boat.

Further down the river is Lucy’s Mill Bridge. It’s named after Lucy, a lady who had a Mill built for her (where the tall flats are) and has been a place where people have crossed the river for a long long time (100s of years).

When Lucy’s Mill Bridge was built of wood, it did fall down (a few times). Go back about 100 years and they built a concrete bridge and this one has lasted, even when the river has flooded (see the picture).

Lots of people do use the bridge, but lots can’t.

You may have a younger brother or sister who gets pushed around in a wheelchair. They can’t walk a long way yet! Or ask your Mum or Dad about when you were little and you had your own pushchair. They will tell you that Lucy’s Mill Bridge’s steep steps are really hard to use.

Its the same for people who don’t walk as well as they used to. Most important though is that if you have friends who use a wheelchair, the only way they could get up and down the steps is to be carried.

That’s what the Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge are here to do – to change all this. The bridge does need a coat of paint. It also needs to be a bridge that everyone can use. That could be if ramps were added to each end of the bridge. There could be a bridge to replace this one, or a new bridge built close by. Or there is one other option which is where YOU can help!

Why not have a lift or a moving staircase – an escalator?

It could be bright and shiny, made of metal and glass (like you see in shopping centres) – remember we would need two, one of each end, and the shape of the steps is different on either side of the bridge.

Could a lift be hidden away inside something that looks like one of the trees along the riverbank, so that people go out onto the bridge along its branches?

Could there be statues of Lucy (and her friends) that hide the lift away. We don’t have pictures of Lucy but she lived a long time ago. If you search for picture of ladies from the 17th and 18th Centuries, you’d have a good idea?

Its really up to you! You can be very serious or really crazy! This is a bit of a competition in that there will be some prizes but every entry* will be displayed on our web site and many will be used at the exhibition we are going to hold, in Stratford, this Autumn. The best entries will be used in a presentation we will give to important people later on this year.
You can make your own drawings, paintings or models.

You can use the drawings HERE and HERE to sketch or paint over.

Or you can use them – or say a picture you take – and use computer software to create your plans and pictures.

You can put notes around the edge of your picture, explaining what things are and what they do.

There is a set of Rules HERE that you need to show your parents or guardians before you start but the main things you must do are:

1) Use an A4 piece of paper which is on its side – in landscape format – so that it is wider than it is tall OR take a photos (say of a model you make) which is a landscape
2) * We will show every entry we receive as long as a picture doesn’t have any details of who you are on the picture (they go on the back on your entry), and that your picture doesn’t use any logos of companies on it, or picture of famous people (anyone actually) that you find on the internet or cut out from a magazine.
3) You can only enter once and your entry can be up to 3 pictures (pages)

So its up to you!

Why not ask to go for walk to the bridge (if you haven’t been)? If you have a pet dog, you could take them down and take their picture for ‘1000 Paws’ 

The closing date is 30th October 2017.

To enter, you can either post your entry to

The Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge
The Town Hall
Sheep St,
Stratford-upon-Avon
CV37 6EF

(or you can post an entry by hand in the post box for the Friends inside the Foyer of the Town Hall)

Or you can send images (PDFs, JPEGs) of your entry to lucyslift@lucysmillbridge.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Economic, Health and Social impact of a bridge

This last weekend highlighted how popular our town can be, and some of its problems. Tens of thousands of people came and enjoyed the River Festival, a huge success in terms of raising the profile of Stratford, filling the streets (and the shops and recreational venues – and all those economic benefits).

Never mind the road traffic (more later), one of Stratford’s two footbridges was overwhelmed by the numbers wanting to cross to visit the main Festival site. If Stratford could have a number of festivals of the size, popularity and on-going engagement of the River Festival – to go with all that is Shakespeare – then the visitor contribution to our town’s prosperity would be near year long and enormous.

As it is, think about other market towns which may have historical figures whose ‘antiquities’ bring one sort of tourist to a town, then have their own (noted) festivals – such as Hay-on-Wye – and you have a prestige which reaches world-wide just like Shakespeare does but with perhaps a more wide-spread but niche appeal to the readers of books, a proliferation of celebrities and then a town full of book shops.

The RSC has had and still does have ‘stars’ who are members of its actors’ roster but Nicole Kidman playing Cleopatra in a 2-3-4000 seater auditorium – alongside any other number of ‘Hollywood’ A-listers for months on end – this would create a star-spotting atmosphere which would attract a different type of tourist. There was just a taste of this when David Tennant was playing Hamlet around the time of his incarnation as Doctor Who but if you’ve any thoughts about a premise that the RSC isn’t being ‘commercial’ enough, they are just about the most respected theatre company in the World.

There is a difference – there are huge differences – between day visitors wanting generic entertainment, those who can (and want to) stay at least over-night, those who want a real quality experience for a short-medium period, those who want to be at the forefront of innovation, those looking for a purely retail experience. Never mind the weekly congestion that our town has at a weekend, the tens of thousands who came to the River Festival had to find somewhere to park, then work their way to the river, then cross it – and do the same returning back home. Some will not return because of their experiences finding parking and then moving around. Others will have a visiting ‘attitude’ that they only go to an occasion/event once, and that they then move on.

The BID, the District and Town Councils, the RSC and the Birthplace Trust all invest in special events which create a calendar for our town. There are commercial and community partnerships who add to this branding (think the Beer and the just finished Literary Festivals and the Stratford Triathlons), plus charity events such as the Marathon and the Raft Race. Every occasion creates an economic footprint from the number of visitors, how long they stay and what they spend money on.

This isn’t though forgetting all the Stratford Residents who attend or take part in all these events, people who probably walk to them when they know taking a car would be futile.

Creating physical infrastructure then maintaining it and managing it (through traffic control measures and payment for use) is the foundation of any economic footprint. The elements of health and social values are its partners.

You – those charged with doing so – can look at major campaigns such as say national cycle routes or (and in addition) break things down into micro models. Let’s take the Rec as one of these.

It is managed by the locality public sector but in reality it is owned by all of us, Stratford residents. It is our only major green space where whether there are visitors or not, we can go as an individual or group and enjoy fresh air and moderate exercise (if we so want) then return home or visit the facilities of the town. Our model – that of us as residents using its well made paths (accessibility for everyone) – it doesn’t need a second bridge.

Yes there are proposals for ‘relief roads’ and there will be new traffic controls in and around the Clopton Bridge – which may help with access to its car parks as well as weekday and weekend problems – but say for the River Festival and any other event which uses the area across from the Theatre, the playing field part of the Rec (the area past the playground and next to Stratford tennis Club’s tennis courts) can be used as a very temporary car park. That is a part solution were it not for the proposals that Stratford Sports Club are developing which would put all weather sports pitches in place of the grass. Improving sports facilities has a measurable health and social benefit, plus an economic visitor/tourism impact in that on a regular basis people from outside of Stratford would come and play or watch. This wouldn’t be the sort of numbers who come to something like the River Festival but then again, that event will change over the next few years.

We are a very beautiful town, situated in the Heart of England, so having our own marina is going to become a tourist attraction, If you haven’t ever visited the site, do take a look at some of the pictures below. It’s going to be for 250 boats (so its really a large lake) situated in a beautiful bowl of unspoilt countryside. Hopefully the little hills that frame it will never be built on and the land across the river is part of the flood plain so that will never be spoilt.

From the moment work begins, people will start to wander down the beautiful riverside walk to take a look at what is going on. It may take a few years for all the moorings to be taken up but in the ‘early years’ it could be an over-flow for river craft wanting to come to the River Festival. Once up and running (in any way) if it has a cafe that will be busy with people taking the healthier option (of distance walked) to go and see the boats.

People who take up moorings will know that there is a shopping centre just 500m walk from their boat. It will be the same distance to starting a tour of Stratford itself at Holy Trinity Church then walking into town through a far less congested route, perhaps eating at a restaurant that isn’t on the main thoroughfares. It’s easy to reach Hall’s Croft, Shakespeare’s School, The Guild Chapel, New Place – then of course to go to the RSC. This will all be easy for perhaps 1000 people (at peak times) as building an economic model one could assume an average of four people per boat.

This is the start of a micro model. You could go further and look at say the ‘wants’ of people who like to attend church. Staying at the marina in Stratford on a Sunday and Holy Trinity is just 10 minutes away (the same lovely walk if you are a Methodist). This isn’t the same size model as for a major event but it’s a consistent number of people who will benefit from access into the town … via Lucy’s Mill Bridge.

That is if it were a bridge for everyone.

There is the possibility of adding footpaths to Severn Meadows Road. There is the possibility of creating a pedestrian ‘add-on’ to Severn Meadows Bridge, just like on the Clopton Bridge. Both would have a negative health and social impact, never mind their cost.

There are plans/proposals/ideas for a new primary school next to Trinity Mead, and at the least a 6th Form College situated behind Rosebird, if not a school. Each has an economic and social impact and whilst they will cater for students (families) living South of the river (and so reduce congestion into our town), for those living on the Northern side of the Avon, and to the west, then foot or cycle access – via Lucy’s Mill Bridge – will connect them to new services.

  

Putting the marina as the lead on a new economic model, people just going to see it will pass by steps that could take them back into Stratford by a different route, This will affect those people who could nominally be ‘one-off’ visitors (remember back to earlier on in this post).

The bridge is there. There are footpaths already there heading North and South. They are well away from a busy road. The bridge – like any bridge – has a maintenance cost. We, the Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge, will do our best to show you all the options for this river crossing. They are – in principle – to refurbish the present structure, to replace it or to build an additional bridge.

That said, there has been work (studies) already done on these options. We will ask for and would very much appreciate if people would like to contribute with interviews or summaries (reports) of what has gone on before. We fully appreciate that finance is the key issue to any solution and that funding options now may well be very different to that of say 10 years ago.

In economic terms, and yes taking into account any sort of modelling that projects impact of 5-10-20 years, upgrading what we have is highly likely to be the lowest cost solution.

From a tourist marketing impact, Lucy’s Mill Bridge has been a river crossing for as long as its ‘sisters’ – if not longer. What happens to this bridge has a PR value but what The Friends would like to put forward is that right now, and not just thinking about the circumstances when huge volumes of people have to be catered for, there are historical numbers of local people who do use Lucy’s Mill Bridge – and a significant number who cannot.

Yes the bridge is a struggle for people with pushchairs and bikes, and for those who don’t walk as well as they used to, but for anyone with a wheelchair or a mobility device, they simply cannot cross the river. There is a cost to helping everyone have as near the same accessibility as everyone else. Its a commitment we, as a society, have prioritised. Lucy’s Mill needs to be part of this.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this post and that it has given you food for thought. It is ideas about how analysis of economic, health and social takes place – the background to what people think about. We’ve avoided as much ‘opinion’ as we can. If you would like to respond privately – or publicly (we are more than happy to give space on our web site for a response) – we would love to hear from you!