Sunderland City Centre Exclusion Zone ... another ill-conceived project.

Sunderland City Council's department of bizarre ideas has come up with another classic. This time 'someone' has decided that an 'exclusion zone' will be created in the City Centre between 12 midnight and 5am.

The map on the left shows the extent of the zone.
During this period there will be no vehicular access ... not even for taxis.

You can read the recent report in the Sunderland Echo here

Businesses and taxi firms are incensed over the proposals which are ill-conceived and illogical.

The zone will have the effect of forcing late night revellers to walk to the outside of the zone in order to picked up. To the west of the zone is a dual carriageway. To the south of the zone there is a hackney rank which will be clogged in minutes and not able to accommodate private hire pick-ups.

As there is no access to the north of the zone that leaves the east ... the furthest point from the main outspill points from pubs and clubs at that time.

Now we have established the physical and directional aspect let us look at the safety issues.

Vulnerable persons including disabled and women now have to walk up to 300 yards through dark streets with rowdy adults milling around looking for take-aways pubs and clubs and taxis.

Under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 the authorities have a duty to minimise not increase the potential for crime and disorder.

6 Formulation and implementation of strategies
(1) The responsible authorities for a local government area shall, in accordance with the provisions of section 5 above and this section, formulate and implement, for each relevant period, a strategy for the reduction of crime and disorder in the area.

The Police and the Council have to have conducted a review and produced a report detailing how, by removing vehicles especially taxis from the City Centre at this time of night will have the effect of reducing crime and disorder. I am sure that this will make interesting reading as it goes against the grain of all other city strategies, including that of the Police, which is to extricate as many people from city centre areas as quickly as possible to prevent disorder.

JULIE BENTLEY, chief executive of personal safety charity the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, criticised the proposals, claiming they "make no sense".

She said: "We would always advise people, whenever possible, to book a cab in advance to collect them from their final venue ... to prevent them from having to walk the streets to get a cab."This scheme would appear to make this impossible. We'd be concerned about any such plans which would cause people, who are perhaps alone and have been drinking too much, having to travel some distance in order to catch a cab."

Jim Hannan, of the City of Sunderland Private Hire Operators' Association, which represents Sunderland's 600-plus private hire drivers, said:

"Young and vulnerable groups could fall foul to all kinds of mischief as they make their way from Holmeside and Green Terrace to the top of Park Lane," said Mr Hannan."Public disorder incidents will rise within this area and in the long term people that cannot get picked up at, or near, the venue will vote with their feet and spend their weekends and money in South Shields or Newcastle."This I'm sure will have a detrimental effect on the vibrant evening economy that the council claims we enjoy."

We are sure that this controversial proposal will attract more national publicity and bring more derision on the city and the night time revellers will be driven to South Shields and Newcastle for a night out (and driven back by out of town cabbies) taking more money away from the local economy.

Nice one Sunderland!