The reappearance of the roundabout in central Keswick has been welcomed – months after traces of the old one disappeared.
The fresh paint job on the mini roundabout at the junction of Main Street and Tithebarn Street follows “months of lobbying,” the county council, say Keswick councillors.
Some cycle staff consider that the roundabout has always been slightly in the “wrong place” and can cause difficulty for traffic exiting from the Tithebarn Street side.
Cllr Tony Lywood said he and town mayor Allan Dunn had made various representations to Cumbria County Council’s highways department to get the work done.
Cllr Dunn said he was delighted with the job and pointed out that it was not just the roundabout but the junctions too which had been painted.
“I am grateful to highways for getting it sorted but I must say, it has taken a while,” said the mayor.
Cllr Duncan Miller raised the issue of the vanishing roundabout at a meeting of Keswick Town Council eight weeks ago, saying it represented a “safety” issue.
Cllr Miller said at the time: “We have no white lines and no circle in the middle and it’s one of the town’s busiest roundabouts apart from Borrowdale – it’s poor.”
And Leonard Will, of Stanger Street, has called for a crossing to be put in place near the Co-op as people will not walk to the one at Bank Street.
During a survey earlier this year, he found as many as 140 people an hour were trying to cross – running the gauntlet of traffic.
Mr Will said of the new roundabout: “I think the problem is really for people getting across and painting the roundabout isn’t going to make a lot of difference.”
Dominic Westle, manager of Whinlatter Bikes, which overlooks the roundabout, said: “It has been a long time coming. You literally couldn’t see it until it was painted, it was that crumbled away. It was just a case of thank God it’s been done.
“They have painted it in the same place which we think is a bit of an unusual position for a roundabout to be in – we think it’s a bit too far over to the right as you look at it (from our side) but it’s been painted and that’s all we can ask for.”
Mr Westle said staff are used to witnessing near misses on the roundabout with a collision on Friday night, and many entering the roundabout far too quickly. Mr Westle added: “It would be great for a crossing but it would cause absolute mayhem in summer time.
“There were some roadworks right outside the shop probably a week and a half ago when they were digging up something on the pavement and it just caused chaos with traffic backing up, so in theory it would be lovely to have a crossing, my personal view is to get rid of all traffic in town and make it all pedestrianised.
“One of the first questions people ask for with rentals is where can we cycle that’s quiet, where can we cycle that’s away from the traffic, people don’t like riding around the town or by the lake and the state of traffic really is a big issue.”
Is the roundabout slightly out or are you happy with it? Email [email protected]
