An incident in which a coach full of tourists caused damage to a Keswick art gallery while attempting to turn left down Derwent Street from St John’s Street has prompted a call for action.
The vehicle became lodged in St John’s Street and the driver was forced to carry out a complicated manoeuvre to extricate the coach. But in the process of reversing three times it caused damage to masonry and the door of the Viridian art gallery.
The business is owned by Alan Dunn who said that he believed that the coach had left the A66, gone up Chestnut Hill and down “the loops” and into St John’s Street from where it had got stuck attempting to turn next to the Alhambra cinema.
“You have to take a huge great swing to get round that corner even in a car,” said Alan. “There is nothing stopping a coach coming down that street. There should be a warning sign that says ‘no heavy vehicles’. But a coach is not considered a heavy vehicle, but there should be something to stop coaches coming down that way.”
The issue has been taken up by Cllr Markus Campbell-Savours, Keswick’s representative on Cumberland Council, who said: “The one-way system was implemented to make the St John’s Street safer, but there’s nothing safe about coaches hitting shop fronts.
“Despite a view that incidents like this would become less common the longer the one way system was in place, I am frequently hearing stories about large vehicles struggling to navigate the one-way system and the back streets.
“I have asked the council’s highway team to look at this and see what can be done to stop large vehicles turning down Manor Brow and finding themselves in these situations.”
Vehicle owner Johnsons Coaches and Bus Travel, from Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, has admitted liability and paid for the damage caused.
