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Lying in the shadow of the imposing twin towers of the Humber Bridge, Barton has long been a crossing point of the Humber estuary. Before the bridge spanned the permanently silt laden waters in the early 1980s, the ferries were paddle steamers and square-rigged Humber keels. There was even a Roman crossing point hereabouts for Ermine Street.
From the old ferry landing point on the estuary, the road takes you up towards the town, past the redundant Ropeworks (listed Grade II), said to be the longest continuous pantiled roof in the country. Fleetgate is the entrance to the town proper and follows the route of a narrow medieval street. This article is about an exercise in its traffic management and conservation area enhancement.
Fleetgate had become dominated by traffic, with narrow, poorly maintained pavements and a one way double-yellow- lined carriageway. There was demand from the traders for on-street parking provision. An extensive re-sewerage scheme had wormed its way through. In this degraded environment, the shops struggled for patronage.
This scheme predates my time as Conservation Officer but from the files there is a reference to a desire to undertake enhancements dating back to 1987. Indeed the opportunity to reinstate the highway following the re-sewerage contract, with materials more compatible with its Conservation Area status, was already recognised by the Planning Department and the Civic Society. Things finally got into gear when
UK2000
arrived in October 1988 at the request of the Society.
UK2000,
as an arm of the Civic Trust, was able to employ consultants to work up a management scheme to tackle the
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problems of Fleetgate with The Barton Civic Society effectively acting as the clients.
Within a few weeks there was support in principle from the Barton Town Council and the Top of Fleetgate Traders Association. Glanford Borough Council promised funding and political support was garnered from Humberside County Council. A start in 1989-90 was discussed. Evidently even at this stage a few key names appeared to be represented on several of the aforementioned bodies.
A steering group was set up chaired by UK2000 consisting of the above mentioned bodies. The principle of building upon the reinstatement work of the earlier re-sewerage was explored together with a number of measures to slow traffic speeds, widen footpaths, and introduce off street parking bays. A condition of using the UK2000 expertise
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was that an element ot Fmployment Training labour must be used in the carrying out of the contract.The feeling locally was to pursue the scheme with all haste. In November 1988, UK2000 appointed Transportation Planning Associates as consultants to work up the suggested scheme.
As the highway authority, the County Council found that the scheme was not within its capital programme and was pursuing reinstatement along two other roads in Barton. It was also keen to pursue the “who pays for what” question. The Borough Council as a result was requested to pay for the enhancement costs of the traditional materials over and above the normal highway materials, provided that those materials were acceptable to the highway authority. The County Council did, however, offer to review the Traffic Regulation Orders
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Fleetgate, Barton upon Humber, before improvements began.
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CONTEXT 41
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