{"id":13642,"date":"2010-01-29T16:06:17","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T15:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/?p=13642"},"modified":"2012-10-03T18:37:22","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T17:37:22","slug":"shops-v-southern-gas-in-bohemia-christmas-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/?p=13642","title":{"rendered":"Shops v Southern Gas in Bohemia Christmas fight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Myles<\/a>

Myles Evans<\/p><\/div>\n

BOHEMIA\u2019S TRADERS WERE APPALLED to find the time chosen to renew the area\u2019s gas mains was the fourteen weeks running up to Christmas. Work necessitated re-routing traffic round back streets, cutting already inadequate parking, and restricting access to shops. The whole of Bohemia Road from the Wheatsheaf to Needlepoint was affected. One of many traders worried about impact on business, Myles Evans [right], of The Outdoorsman took positive action.
\n\u201cOur local councillor Andrew Cartwright didn\u2019t seem to be doing anything about it, so I contacted Roy Tucker, the Conservative councillor who is lead member for highways. He called a meeting. He was very helpful and got us a short-term reprieve.\u201d
\nPresent at the urgent meeting, held at the Town Hall on 3rd December, were representatives from Morrisons the contractors, Southern Gas Networks, the Highways Authority (East Sussex County Council), the Bohemia Area Association, local councillor Andrew Cartwright, traders and residents. More would have attended had not the meeting been at short notice. It was effective, achieving successful results. Southern Gas agreed to halt the roadworks temporarily and reinstate the road surface, which took about a week.<\/p>\n

\"Terry<\/a>

Terry Foord<\/p><\/div>\n

Myles described the gas-works as \u201cthe last nail in the coffin\u201d for Bohemia\u2019s traders. \u201cAt the meeting I said, \u2018We don\u2019t expect our high street to be closed in the weeks leading up to Christmas. How many more punches have we got to take?\u2019\u201d He told the Voice, \u201cI spoke to other traders and we\u2019re all 50% down on profit due to the roadworks. All our customers have complained about it. I\u2019ve invested a lot of money in this business and I don\u2019t want it killed. I expect the council to serve the people of this town.\u201d
\n\u00a0Terry Foord [right] of Munday\u2019s newsagents said, \u201cThat meeting was a first.\u00a0 It was the first time all the parties concerned got around the table. It was all sensible people, who put their points rationally. It was a very well-conducted meeting. I think Morrisons could see how it was affecting the area. There have been a lot of road works in Bohemia Road in recent years. Even the walking public, as well as the driving public, are put off by the sight of all the fencing and roadworks. I spoke to the foreman of Morrisons and he put in gaps so people can cross.\u201d At the meeting Southern Gas said local traders may be able to claim financial compensation, provided they meet qualification criteria. However, Terry felt this was not worthwhile. \u201cYou have to submit three years\u2019 accounts, and for that you need an accountant. They don\u2019t work for peanuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gas<\/a>

Snow, barriers and one-way traffic in Bohemia Road this year (12 Jan)<\/p><\/div>\n

Andrew Cartwright said, \u201cMyles did not contact me about the roadworks or anything else. I\u2019m always happy to deal with residents\u2019 or traders\u2019 concerns, but they do need to contact me to let me know what their concerns are.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019ve written to Cllr Tucker asking him to put in place a procedure to establish an on-going dialogue with Bohemia\u2019s traders to ensure this kind of problem does not arise in future. I\u2019ve suggested the Bohemia Area Association\u2019s Bohemia Road Improvement Committee could be used to create a positive dialogue.\u201d
\no The roadworks began again in the New Year. The replacement of the gas mains is estimated to be finished about 22nd February, when work will start on resurfacing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOHEMIA\u2019S TRADERS WERE APPALLED to find the time chosen to renew the area\u2019s gas mains was the fourteen weeks running up to Christmas. Work necessitated re-routing traffic round back streets, cutting already inadequate parking, and… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[24,104],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16079,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642\/revisions\/16079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bohemiavillage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}