Mr R W Henderson
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Mr Henderson: Gura mie eu, Eaghtyrane.
I do not envy the Shirveishagh for the Department at all
(A Member: Hear, hear.) in trying to move this project
forward, and trying to have a pragmatic view with regard
to what needs to be done and how to do it. You have every
sympathy from me on that, sir. I think it is very bold of
the Minister to bring it here in a revised guise,
Eaghtyrane, in an honest attempt to try and get
the whole thing moved forward.
I have to say, Eaghtyrane, with increasing annoyance and
anger, that I have to put up – along with the people of
Douglas, year in and year out – and suffer driving on
that Promenade carriageway, with the damage it does to
cars over a long-term period – watch the cracks get
bigger, watch the holes in the road get bigger, watch the
sunken areas develop and deepen. This has been going on,
not for the last few years, but for 25 years – the
disintegration of the surface of that Promenade. And
possibly the first signs of it were maybe 30 to 35 years
ago, if truth be known, when the warning signs were
there. Here we are in 2016 arguing over parking spaces
and horse trams.
The real issue, which has not been addressed to any
extent from any input I have heard so far, is the
crumbling carriageway, the substructure of the crumbling
carriageway, and the voids underneath the foundations
which have been found by radar over the years. There is
an argument as to, ‘Oh well, there were some voids found
and other voids not found’ and all this nonsense. The
point is, Eaghtyrane, there are undoubtedly voids under
the structural foundations of that carriageway. They have
been discovered.
What I want the Minister to do when he comes back to
respond is how close are we to a carriage failure,
whereby a car will hit a collapsed lump of road and go
out of control and crash? That is what I want to know. I
want to know how close to the nail we are here with
health and safety issues. On numerous occasions, I have
watched the likes of taxis over-accelerating on the Prom,
and hitting the bumps and the lumps and the depressions,
and it has struck me that we must be mighty close to a
health and safety issue.
I want to know what other country would keep a
carriageway open in that condition on health and safety
grounds? Should it not be shut? That is where I think we
are going and that is why I think we need to do something
now in relation to the reconstruction of the Promenade.
But I would like you, Minister, to tell us exactly what
state those foundations are in underneath the tarmac. You
said they were crumbling, the old concrete slabs, and so
on. To me, that is pretty serious and it is time to stop
dithering about parking spaces and trams and wonderful
shopping ideas and all the rest of it. Let’s do the main
bit and then, Eaghtyrane, the Minister can clarify for us
how easy it would be to put a bit of rail back
afterwards. I am sure after this debate, if a bit of rail
did not go back, the Department will jolly well ensure in
the future it will be going back on heritage grounds,
amongst other things.
I support the idea in theory of the full length of the
Promenade Horse Tramway line. I support, in theory, the
fact that it should be constructed to hold a light
electric railway. If we can do that, that is the common
sense way to progress something like this, if we are
going to dig the whole Promenade up in the first
instance. But it may be, Hon. Members, that the first
thing we need to do is attend to the health and safety
status of the carriageway in general, before something
serious does happen and then we are forced into urgent
action that we may not wish to have done, and at
additional cost. That is what has always worried me about
this.
The point with the parking that keeps coming in ... I do
not know how much of a red herring we are being thrown
here by the shopkeepers and the commercial sections in
Douglas, as to how bad this would be. I fully understand
the loss of parking would have an effect, and I know what
consternation was caused with the parking charges regime
that came forth from this Department, from another
Minister. However, are there other ways to look at the
parking issues? Is the Promenade wide enough in other
areas, such as we see the size of the footpath at the
Palace Hotel running along there, for instance? Can we
not nibble some of that off, or buy a bit, if it belongs
to the Palace Hotel group, for want of a better
word?
There are large chunks up near the Queen’s Prom with very
wide footpaths, and on the seaward side you could
conceivably nibble some of the footpath and the garden
off to give yourself a widened carriageway that would
answer some of the parking problems – at least to my
loose understanding. I think there are other
out-of-the-box thinking ideas with regard to giving
yourself some more space along the Prom that could be
used there and built into any sort of planning. It might
alleviate some of the parking to an extent where it is
mitigated enough to
drop that argument, Eaghtyrane.
I would put that to the Minister, to look at those. I
have put it to his officers on a couple of occasions, and
the ideas were put down on the grounds of, ‘We don't own
the land. We can't do that. There is this, that and the
other problem.’ However, I re-put the ideas and, if it
costs a little bit to get a few metres of footpath back
into our ownership to help solve some issues or a passing
place loop for the tram track, so be it. I think it is
worth a look at, and if it would help solve one or two of
the thorny issues surrounding this, Eaghtyrane, I think
it is well worth a look at.
In referring to my notes, Eaghtyrane, I think I have
drawn out the main point about the health and safety
issues that I am bothered with. I have come to the point,
actually, where it is so bad on that Promenade, let's
just do the carriageway and think about the horse trams
later. That is the point I am nearly at. How long are we
going to drag it on?
The other thing that has not been mentioned, and I just
throw this in – it may cause some amusement – is animal
welfare. I have heard nothing about the welfare of the
horses. Being a fanatical conservationist in the
background of all this, since I was a lad I have watched
the horses dragging tons of those metal boxes up and down
the Prom and I have seen the state of the animals when
they get to the end of the track, especially a fully
laden tram on a hot day – the horse is wrecked. I want to
know are we going to continue with the good care that we
have seen from Douglas Corporation? Will there be
veterinary checks? What kind of stabling facilities? I
know we have heard about temporary situations, but I want
to know what happens to the animals inside: watering and
so on, cooling-off periods, if we going to go down this
track, if I can call it that, Eaghtyrane.
So with that, I will finish.
Gura mie eu.
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