News: Local Road Closure

3 hours before the firefighters latest 48hour strike was due to happen, there was a major fire quite close to me. Around 6am, the old Bestway cash and carry warehouse on Loughborough Road (close to Red Hill Circle) resulted in the armed forces attending the scene with the “Green Goddesses” fire fighting appliances. Once they managed to gain access to the building (the access road was/is blocked off with concrete blocks to try and stop travellers camping on the site) they extinguished the fire by 9am – just in time for the “proper” firefighters to take over.

However, Loughborough Road is one of the main roads into the city centre (it joined Melton Road – the “Golden Mile” – closer to town which then leads traffic directly into the centre) from the main Outer Ring Road (I live practically parallel with the Bestway cash and carry – and around 1 mile away from it) and for safety reasons, the police closed Loughborough Road between Checketts Road (just before Belgrave Hall as you are leaving the city) and the ring road.

Some drivers obversely thought that they could get away with breaking the law under these circumstances though.

A road that practically connects the road I live on with that of Loughborough Road is “Thurcaston Road” – a standard residential street running parallel to the ring road. At the end closest to me, it is closed for access except for public transport (buses, bikes and taxis) – and under normal circumstances there’s no traffic on that road at all. This morning I saw half a dozen cars decide that “oh – since Loughborough Road is partially closed we can nip across this Thurcaston and ignore the ‘No entry’ signs – the police won’t mind”…

But it gets funnier! A bit further on, Thurcaston Road is intersected with Abbey Lane (another major road) and it then continues towards Belgrave Hall and Loughborough Road. However, because of a “weak bridge” it has been a closed road for the last few years (around 3 to my memory although it was open for around one month last year to enable road-works to be carried out). It’s got big “Road Ahead Closed” signs at both ends – and, just before the bridge, it’s got two great big steel barrels full of dirt and wooden barriers to stop cars even attempting to try and get across the bridge (of course, little me on foot was able to cross easily).

It was actually quite funny watching a dozen or so cars turn off Abbey Lane on to Thurcaston Road and then get to the bridge and realise it is, in fact, STILL CLOSED. The then had to do a practically 360 degree turn to join the queue of traffic trying to leave Thurcaston Road (that’s what the first photo shows – it’s an image from the bridge towards Abbey Lane: all those cars queueing up are trying to leave – and yet more are coming down!).

Well, I found it funny watching the cars and drivers!