One of our regular readers reports a very frustrating time trying to get through only one traffic light and home to his residence in Duncan Drive after returning from Inverness. The image is of the delay on the western approach to the town earlier this evening. Are our dysfunctional lights excelling themselves tonight? There are reports on twitter too of longer than normal delays. Some images from a little later here on the Gurn flickr pages.
Update: 16.10 17/5 Our correspondent tells us that he sent an e-mail to BEAR and received the following: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
I will forward your e-mails to Perth office to emphasise the problem.
Meanwhile we will get SEIMENS Mobility out to check the operation of the traffic lights and rectify any problems there may be."
Around lunchtime today however we had a comment in saying it took 20 minutes to travel from Laing Gardens to Househill.
19 comments:
The traffic light pixie was seen with his laptop plugged into the control box for the Lochloy Road lights at lunchtime today.
Could it be that the free flowing traffic of the last two weeks has been too much for someone at Bear or Transport Scotland & they sent the hit squad in...
It's high time somebody was getting to grips with this, it's being going on for far too long and this is just a standing joke. Nairn doesn't need a bypass it needs to get rid of most of these bloody lights!
What are the four Councillors doing? They should be battering down the doors of both Bear and Transport Scotland.
This is a major issue and nobody seems to be doing anything about it so come on Mr Macauly, Mr Fraser, Mr Green and Mrs Macdonald it's time to get your fingers out of your well paid backsides and get this sorted once and for all! If you are being fobbed off then it's time to stand up for the people of Nairn and for the folk trying to get through Nairn.
We are a laughing stock!
Highland Council as planning authority extracted the money from Sainsburys to "improve" access. Transport Scotland who are responsible for the A96 as a trunk road approved the stupid decision to install traffic lights. They contract out the day-to-day management to BEAR Scotland. And BEAR subcontract the programming of the lights to Siemens.
So when it goes wrong, each is likely to blame the other. The Nairn Councillors need to kick a lot of backsides to get results. It's about time they did so.
We need to ask ourselves, what is the cost of this to Nairn. How many people go the the various retail parks before coming home, how many people stay at home because of the traffic at that times and how many tourists are put off Nairn? Hard to quantify, yes, however, if its one person then it is too many.
Agree with the earlier comment- time for our councillors to get involved or at least voice what they are doing.
And this is not even the start of the holiday season - much much worse to come I am afraid. This constant tinkering with the control boxes does not work, and another strategy is required urgently. Time our councillors got their act together and get something positive done. I know that people now avoid the A96 through Nairn and this is not good for our local businesses and our tourist industry. Laughing stock is an understatement as this has been going on for years now. ACTION NOT WORDS
Have already spoken with Council Leader who will take it head to head with the Transport Minister asap.
If you can spare a minute or 2 - Then email Keith Brown as well - scottish.ministers@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
As others have said here the chain of "responsibility" from Siemens to Bear to Transport Scotland and back down again - doesn't help.
Keep the pressure on for the bypass. It is on the cards - But we need it to be the first stretch of the new dualled A96.
Colin
I have just been from Laing Gardens to Househill and it took me 20mins stuck in traffic on a Saturday at 12.30pm, cannot blame schools or people coming home from work. So has to be traffic lights. I agree with Spurtle was all going well until the traffic light pixie turned up again
time for a council tax strike until the problem is fixed
The bypass is for sometime far in the future but the traffic light problem is happening every day - now, and has been since early 2011!. So, why is Colin (I presume Macaulay?) and the council leader only going to "take it head to head with the transport minister asap"? And when is asap?
Where have their heads been for the last 3 year's, buried in the sand on the East Beach?
Time to get this farce sorted once and for all.
While the suggestion from Colin (2.56pm) that we should all write to Ministers is perhaps predictable, it's what local residents have been doing for decades. The only result will be standard replies written by civil servants drawing attention to the Government promise to (eventually) dual the A96.
We need to be clear: the long term solution may - indeed must - be the bypass. But meanwhile, now, this summer, and this year, there is a short-term, immediate problem that needs fixing.
It isn't enough to hope or dream about how wonderful it will all be when the bypass is in place. And the reported reaction to complaints (some official emails some other official in Perth who then emails the traffic-light pixies again) is just a joke.
The present setup is not fit for purpose. Action needs to be taken NOW, on the existing road, at the junctions, and with the lights, to deal with the current obstacles to a sensible traffic flow.
It may be too radical for some - but getting rid of all the traffic lights would almost certainly make the transit of Nairn a lot easier for traffic, and (though it may seem hard to believe) for pedestrians too. Why not run an experiment? Just switch off, or cover, all the lights and see what happens.
The bypass is going to happen is it? It's still all about lines on the map. I'll believe it when I see the JCBS moving onto site!
Whilst far from perfect, the multiple roundabouts in Elgin cause far less disruption than do the Nairn traffic lights.
Traffic coming onto the A96 filters into gaps in the flow reasonably easily and there is no electronic system to break down.
Chrissie Ellen at the height of her career as a councillor would have simply found out who was responsible for these lights and "set aboot" them until they were fixed once and for all. Compared to her our present crop of (very well paid) councillors are ineffective wimps who should be ashamed of themselves.
Action needs to be taken now? Yes, indeed it does but, unfortunately, the big ship called the Highland Council and the bigger ship called the Scottish Government, takes far too long to react. You're not telling me that these issues have not been raised within these entities before now? There are so many layers of bureaucracy and so many places that things can be passed to that it is very easy for nothing to be done. How many organisations are involved in this? Bear Scotland, Highland Council, Transport Scotland, Siemens, I'm sure there are many more.
It's time for the people, who are meant to represent us, both Councillors and officials, to get off their well paid backsides and find a solution to this problem. If they don't I'm afraid they continue to look impotent and toothless and that they are being treated with a certain amount of contempt and derision by other organisations.
Time to grow a set!
Time to find your inner Chrissie Ellen!!
It's Sunday 12:30 & the traffic is backed up to manse road, really what's this about. Come on Nairn council leaders this is going on for too long now, you need to get this sorted out for the good of the town. Let's see some action from yourself.
while out and about this weekend. doing our allotment stuff roads were very busy. this includes all the back roads that miss the town. lots more folk are now using them to save being stuck in the hold ups. time to have a look at this issue and get it sorted out.
We can blame our Councillors for hiding on this issue -well except one who I'm sure enjoys the immediate interruption of the A96 traffic when exiting Lochloy Road!
@anon, re Council offer of system, is there any info online anywhere about that?
Here here
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