Snow aftermath 3

The last view of my back garden Friday was an expanse of white, first thing Saturday it was all green. All the snow had just gone. Well around here it had anyway. I drove into Kidderminster and parked for free at the Crossley Estate to walk into town and fortunately got a spot next to Currys at the end nearest there.

I taken the main route into Kidderminster as I normally do as I'd been warned about the havoc the snow/frost/water combination had had on the already poor conditions along that way. Having seen first-hand how the tearing on the Stour Bridge had been laid open I believed them. Once again I'd also like to point out that once you get past the main traffic lights it's still a national speed limit applies all the way through the next set until you hit the 40 then 30. In the same vein I'd also like to point out the connections between the islands are 40mph limits despite being two lanes wide. Also as I try to do I'd like to offer a slap to whoever redesigned the bus station island so that you have no idea where traffic coming from the New Street direction is in fact heading.

The town itself was fine and I got what I needed and saw what I needed to see (sadly not available in Stourport) and headed back for a poke at the electronic stores and The Range. I headed past the shops and as I usually do despair at the poor lack of planning shown. It's possible to walk under cover all along the front of the stores except where some stores have pushed out their doors to cover the walkway and you have to leave cover to walk around them; oh and corner cover should always be diagonal rather than a right angle nobody turns corners like that they cut across and thus get wet.

Anyway I digress (as I do) heading back I took the main path along the road and spotted the huge lump of snow covering one of the scrubby bushes on the end of a 'lane' on the car-park, then later another pile blocking off two bays. Between them was a river. running along the section of the car-park closest to the pedestrian crossing was a river, too wide to jump too, deep to wade. I watched as people leaving their cars walked towards it, stopped then looked around to find some way to get past it with little other option than a large detour.

Yes it's that bugbear again - poor planning. As I've said before except up by The Range there are no pedestrian facilities at this end of the car-park. You can walk along the path (sort of) next to the shops, you can walk along the path next to the road, but there are only three points they meet and there's a car-park between them. Even the pedestrian crossing does this. You have to laugh at a crossing that has the textured tiling for the blind and partially sighted connects to the main path and also the car-park.

Anyway once again the water flow shows up just how bad the drainage systems are in some places.