Cheltenham town centre road to close for two weeks while ‘tarmac …
Cambray Place in Cheltenham’s town centre[1] is finally getting a much-needed makeover to fix the patchwork replacement work that one group has called “tarmac cowpats”. The route will be closed to vehicles for two weeks while road crews resurface the route.
The part-pedestrianised road near John Lewis[2] has seen a large swathe of its yellow stone composite floor slabs replaced with tarmac by successive utilities, leaving an unsightly mishmash for shoppers and visitors to the Regency town. From Monday (June 10), Gloucestershire Highways[3] will close the centre of the road to fix the patchwork path.
Shoppers will still have access to all of the businesses on the road for the duration of the improvement work, due to co-ordination between Cheltenham BID[4] and Highways. The funding for Cambray Place’s makeover comes from a £1.8 million investment in the town centre’s appearance from both the county and borough council, which will also see improvements to The Strand.
Cheltenham Civic Society has been highly critical of the road’s appearance for some time, labelling the not like-for-like replacement work by contractors as a series of “tarmac cowpats” blighting a prominent road in the town. They welcomed the improvement works and said they would continue to hold Highways to account for other sub-par replacement work by contractors around Cheltenham.
The patchwork in-fill left by various contractors on Cambray Place (Image: Will Morgan)
Markings have been drawn on the pavement so that the road crews can begin their work immediately on Monday, which will involve removing the slabs in the central pathway and using them to fill in some of the “cowpats” left in the walkways on either side. The centre of the road on Cambray Place will then be resurfaced.
In a previous meeting with the civic society, Gloucestershire Highways said that any of the leftover stone slabs will be used to also repair the tarmac replacement work that has left black blotches on Regent Street. The works are scheduled to be complete by July 21.
References
- ^ Cheltenham’s town centre (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ John Lewis (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Gloucestershire Highways (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Cheltenham BID (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Huge parking shake-up to see strict limits for non-residents in part of Cheltenham (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)