Poulton Home Zone Wins National Award

Poulton Home Zone has been honoured as the ‘Urban Traffic Scheme of the Year 2005’ at the Highways Magazine Excellence Awards.

The award recognises the scheme’s innovative and visionary design and operation that has significantly enhanced road safety.

The Poulton Home Zone scheme was co-ordinated by Lancaster City Council’s Engineering Services department, / Lancashire Highways Partnership, and Poulton Neighbourhood Management and built by contractors Cumbrian Industrials Limited.

The contractors, Cumbrian Industrials Limited were presented with the award in a ceremony in London attended by James May from the BBC Top Gear television programme.

Mike Thompson, of Cumbrian Industrials Limited, said: “We are very proud to receive this award and we are proud of the work we have completed in Poulton.

“The Poulton area has received national recognition and this scheme has been identified as ‘Industry Best Practice’ within the construction world.”
“We are grateful for the contributions the residents have made to the success of this scheme and the recognition it has received. Praise must also be given to Lancaster City Council whose new approach to procurement and working enabled this scheme to be a great success. We would also like to thank Poulton Neighbourhood Management, Lancashire Highways Partnership and Capita Symonds for their assistance in achieving the award.”

The Home Zone has enhanced the area and improved traffic safety for residents. The concept of the Home Zone scheme was to ‘give the streets back to the residents’ by creating improved traffic safety and to allow children to play safely in the street.

By restoring the balance between traffic and people living in a street the Home Zone aimed to bring down vehicle speeds, reduce crime and bring communities together to make the streets safer, cleaner, more sociable and better places to live.

Care and consideration was taken to use sympathetic materials that have a traditional resonance in this part of Morecambe and wherever possible items were recycled from the original streetscape.

The judges commented that the Poulton Home Zone demonstrated good resident involvement and they were impressed with the attention to detail. They felt that the resulting street scene was well presented and the environment well considered.

The completed Home Zone has made a major contribution to the regeneration of the town and complements a number of other initiatives that are improving Morecambe.

Promoting Poulton

Poulton Neighbourhood Management has produced two exciting new publications for visitors to Poulton.

‘A Guide to Shopping and History in the Traditional heart of Morecambe’ features some of the specialist independent shops in Poulton to tempt visitors to shop locally and appreciate the delights of the historic village pointing out architectural gems such as the art deco buildings.

The shopping and history guide has a heritage trail starting at Lord Street and taking in Poulton Square and gives detailed information about the historic points of interest along the way. The trail continues along the promenade pointing out some of the specialist shops before leading people back into the maze of streets off the sea front including Clarence Street, and visiting ‘Fisherman’s Square’ and the arts centre, Mona House. The trail goes on to the promenade to show visitors the Clocktower, the Eric Morecambe statue, the Winter Gardens, the Midland Hotel and ends by the stone jetty.

The guide includes a list of cafés and restaurants that will tempt the taste buds.

The leaflet also includes a prize draw entry to win a weekend stay for two people in a hotel in Morecambe.

The second publication is a booklet containing the ‘Poulton Mural Trail’. There are now seven murals dotted around town, all celebrating the heritage of Poulton. The Mural Trail starts at the Town Hall and visits each mural, working towards finishing at the fishing boat mural on Victoria Street and walking along Skipton Street to see the Eric Morecambe statue on the promenade.
Both of the publications will be made available in local public buildings such as the Tourist Information Centres, the library, police station, Town Hall etc, as well as being distributed in local hotels and guest houses in the area. The ‘Shopping and History Guide’ will be sent to Tourist Information Centres outside of the district to encourage shoppers and day visitors to Morecambe.