Wasn't going to say anything more about this in the meantime, but read something earlier that I wish I hadn't. Anyway, nothing's changed as regards the Bell Street rank in the other thread, still not a peep from the council, blah, blah.
There's another, smaller rank in St Andrews that I use occasionally, but this illustrates why I don't like it much of the time (or at least one main reason - won't go into the others just now. But, for example, I wouldn't even go near it during the day, because of constant complaints from the public and nearby businesses, and complaints from the council to the trade).
Anyway, here it is:
Pretty straightforward, but look closely at the back:
So there's more taxis diagonally parked off the back (in a loading bay) than on the actual rank. So moving up the rank from the back often requires several diagonal parking manoeuvres, which I don't like at all. You can't see the road if there's other vehicles behind you, and there's the usual passing traffic, and boy racers at night in particular. And, despite a zebra and pelican crossing at either end of the rank, still lots of people just wandering across the road willy nilly, which isn't good as regards moving up the rank from the diagonal spaces. And the cylists which can appear suddenly from here, there and everywhere.
Anyway, see the marquee on the right behind the green light? That just went up last week, taking up several parking spaces. So although in another street the council widened the pavement from 3.6m to 6.1m, this is what's happened here:
Images: DC Thomson/Richard Olver
As you'll see, barely 1m left.
Which I don't begrudge, if only there as a bit more balance shown towards people like me and the rest of the trade
But I read this earlier - ever read something you're kind of looking forward to, but end up regretting it?
It's quite a long piece about how the restaurant is back to normal business levels because of the marquee etc, and lots of stuff about how it's been achieved with social distancing etc.
But these are the bits that stood out:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifesty ... or-eatery/
Quote:
As Julie Lewis watched the first minister set out the new regulations for hospitality businesses, which would see her having to stop selling alcohol and close her bar and restaurant indoors from 6pm, she wondered what the next two weeks would bring.
Her source of hope was that, having foreseen that winter was likely to lead to greater safety concerns around the spread of coronavirus, she had applied to Fife Council to extend The Adamson’s outdoor space – and had only just received the go-ahead.
It proved to be hugely fortuitous timing because it meant that Julie, who is managing director of the popular St Andrews eatery, and her team had a shot at moving a large part of their business outdoors – but they only had two days to pull it off.
She explained: “On Wednesday last week when I listened to the words coming from Nicola Sturgeon on the TV she was saying it was about wellbeing, still meeting people if you can but be safe and don’t go in people’s houses. For me in a student town, a tourism town and a town for locals, there are still people who want to meet and want to see each other and it’s important for them to be able to do that.
“So we just went for it. Scott Dougall has an events and catering business. I phoned him and said, ‘Let’s do this’. He turned the [marquee] set-up around in under 24 hours. We promoted it on social so on Friday night people were coming along to see what we were doing. They were interested.
“The marquee had sprung up on Thursday. We’d had the car parking spaces and had applied to use it two months ago. I thought that outside, it’s so poignant at the moment because of safety, so we had planned to use the area anyway from November 1st and the council had signed it off on the Wednesday afternoon so I said, ‘let’s go for it’.”
Her source of hope was that, having foreseen that winter was likely to lead to greater safety concerns around the spread of coronavirus, she had applied to Fife Council to extend The Adamson’s outdoor space – and had only just received the go-ahead.
It proved to be hugely fortuitous timing because it meant that Julie, who is managing director of the popular St Andrews eatery, and her team had a shot at moving a large part of their business outdoors – but they only had two days to pull it off.
She explained: “On Wednesday last week when I listened to the words coming from Nicola Sturgeon on the TV she was saying it was about wellbeing, still meeting people if you can but be safe and don’t go in people’s houses. For me in a student town, a tourism town and a town for locals, there are still people who want to meet and want to see each other and it’s important for them to be able to do that.
“So we just went for it. Scott Dougall has an events and catering business. I phoned him and said, ‘Let’s do this’. He turned the [marquee] set-up around in under 24 hours. We promoted it on social so on Friday night people were coming along to see what we were doing. They were interested.
“The marquee had sprung up on Thursday. We’d had the car parking spaces and had applied to use it two months ago. I thought that outside, it’s so poignant at the moment because of safety, so we had planned to use the area anyway from November 1st and the council had signed it off on the Wednesday afternoon so I said, ‘let’s go for it’.”
Quote:
Having shared their new outdoor set-up on social media, the posts caught the attention of the team at Business Gateway resulting in some additional financial support to help cover cost.
Julie explained: “Over the weekend Business Gateway were so interested in what we were doing on social, one of my contacts in Fife [local] government got in touch and said, ‘Would you like a Business Gateway support grant?’ So we ended up getting a grant which will help us keep the business open over this period.”
Julie explained: “Over the weekend Business Gateway were so interested in what we were doing on social, one of my contacts in Fife [local] government got in touch and said, ‘Would you like a Business Gateway support grant?’ So we ended up getting a grant which will help us keep the business open over this period.”