Bye-bye Fopp, and a cycle path oddity.

Fopp was all shuttered-up last Saturday and all shuttered this Saturday. As this is the Roland hill my thoughts first turned to the Café Pacifico rent increase fun. Except it's not - RIP Fopp the title says it all. So Kidderminster is back down to WH Smith and Woolworths for its music and video needs. I was going to say quirky music and video needs except of course neither of those two stores do quirky. Damn! And they're gone not because they're not making a profit, but because they can't get the investment. Major major suckage. Well the store's all done out, perhaps we're get an HMV or a Virgin expressing an interest.


This took a few passes to process, I'm talking about the cycle lane from Kidderminster to Stourport along the main duel-carriageway.

First pass - They've split it into two, why are they using tactile paving? Is it for pedestrians?
Second pass - They've made a right mess of that it's not even straight.
Third pass - That's not tactile paving.

It's easy enough to do - you're digging up a cycle path laid out in a dark maroon colour and you refill and pave it in what appears to be salmon pink. I mean the colours are so close to identical you'd hardly notice it, especially when driving past at 40mph...

I wanted to get some shots on Sunday, but time flew away from me. Seriously though who the hell did this? Who signed off on it? We're not talking about a subtle change such as the paving in High Street we're talking bold stripes. It's completely different, it's not even close and, better yet due to the work done, it's not even confined to a straight path. It meanders along, cuts across, and juts out at odd square angles.

On the third pass, I paid more attention as I went along and was a bit surprised when I got to the end at St Johns Road. The maroon top coating appeared to be worn and peeling away (I need to get a closer inspection) in a similar fashion to High Street. I found this a touch worrying; this is a cycle path. Unlike High Street which has a high number of heavy motor vehicles travelling along it this path should experience only bicycles and pedestrians. So how could the surface be wearing away?

Now I recall that Jim said he might take a look and try out his new camera, he didn't even know there was a cycle path there. Well he is new to the area and it isn't exactly well sign-posted. What seems to shock people is that there's a pedestrian path too, there's a grass verge between it and the cycle path then another verge and then the road. Never ever cleared so everyone walks on the cycle path, which as I say isn't well posted as such so that might confuse cyclists into believing it to be a regular pedestrian path.