Council talks are set to get underway on changes to the unpopular golden-coloured tarmac in the new events area in Burnham-On-Sea’s High Street, it has emerged this week as councillors also formally threw out plans for golden-coloured pavements along the seafront.
Mayor Cllr Martin Cox explained at this week’s council meeing that the golden tarmac in the High Street had “not been quite what we expected”.
Town councillors overturned their previous decision made in March to introduce the ‘golden’ tarmac on The Esplanade pavements between the jetty and Coastguard station as part of a £200,000 revamp. The controversial decision, first reported here, prompted an outcry.
Cllr Helen Groves added: “If you end up with sections of the town centre and Esplanade with different colours it just looks awful. I’d like to see it kept clean and tidy.”
Cllr Bill Hancock agreed, saying: “I propose that it goes black and stays black. The seafront is bound to be dug up in the future and it cannot be resurfaced easily if it’s not black.”
Cllr Ken Smout added: “I have always said it should be black – I don’t want to see a patchwork of colours across the town.”
A vote was taken, with simple black tarmac chosen for the seafront.
The road colouring in the High Street events area will also be discussed with Somerset County Council’s Highways team by the Town Council’s Town Projects Committee as part of ongoing negotiations over the remaining work in the town centre.
Several accidents occurred in the High Street events area in the days after the new tarmac was installed with several pedestrians hurt, as we reported at the time.
Sedgemoor District Council has earmarked £200,000 towards the cost of resurfacing the pavements between the jetty and Coastguard station. We reported last summer that cracks along the seafront were being patched up, before the longer-term resurfacing is implemented.
Sedgemoor’s Jo Hutchins said in a letter to councillors: “The current surfacing is cracked and showing signs of wear and Sedgemoor intends to go out to tender to replace the surface at the end of this summer season.”
