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THE BRIDGE - Allan at The Black Fox Inn (23rd Nov 2005 - 19:04:19) I was informed this afternoon that the railway bridge on the Portsmouth Rd. will re-open on Monday afternoon next week. We shall see. If it doesn't and any one wished to queary why, the project manager is a chap called Prasanna Jukunta, otherwise known as P.J. and can be contacted at Edmund Nuttall Ltd., tel. no. 01293 622486 or mob.no. 07879 413471. Can't wait!.

Re: THE BRIDGE - John (23rd Nov 2005 - 22:11:45) Hoorah ! This road's been closed for the best part of a month now and been rather inconvenient. What have they been doing? sounds like someones being paid by the hour !

Re: THE BRIDGE - Freddie Dawkins (23rd Nov 2005 - 23:41:22) Just out of interest, on Tuesday this week I drove the distance from The Square to the Black Fox via Milland - it was just over 5 miles. (Had to stay for a half of the special Black Fox ale of course!) Following the diversion signs from The Square, via the A3, Liss, Hillbrow to the Black Fox - almost 10 miles. I wonder why the highways authority decided this time not to sign the divert via Milland? Still, good news if the road does re-open in the next few days. And I'm sure the newly-painted bridge will look really different - NOT!! Freddie

Re: THE BRIDGE - Alex Cameron (24th Nov 2005 - 00:39:43) I really hope you guys take legal action, because as far as i am concerned you truly deserve compensation.

Re: THE BRIDGE - Allan/b/fox (24th Nov 2005 - 01:44:23) Painting,John, painting.Surely you can fathom and understand that it takes 6 weeks to prepare and paint the underside of a bridge of that magnitude. Bear in mind that painting the Forth Railway bridge ,is a never ending exercise, so, why not make the job at OUR BRIDGE any different!. I, as proprietor of the Black Fox am very cheesed off at the fact that the bridge was closed off when it was without any consultation with local businesses as to the impact the closure would have in the run up to Xmas. This leads us into another scenario. As I understand it, the details of the planning application lodged by Network Rail were submitted to the Highways Agency responsible for East Hants. The Highways Agency apparently are under no obligation to inform those who may be affected by the application that an application has been made, OR, advertise in the usual fashion that an application has been lodged inviting objections or comments in the same way that, for instance , your next door neighbour would have to if he/she wanted to put dormer windows on their roof or something similar. Am I the only person who finds that sinister. The milk is spilt, as far as I am concerned, over the losses incurred business wise over the closure ( not just by us at The Black Fox--other businesses have lost more than us ), but I do believe that in future there should be more transparency. One final point: when the application was made by Network Rail for closure of the bridge from 17th Oct. to 9th Dec. our parish council were advised(Iknow not how far in advance) by the highways agency. How come that our representatives did NOT KICK UP A BIG STINK! Their protest on behalf of the community should have been loud, clear and well known. We heard nothing. We, as a community of residents, businesses, parents having to take our children on convoluted long detours to schools and many others similarly inconvenienced should take note. We have been abused as a community by Network Rail and their contractors, but, why do I feel more let down by those agencies closest to us .

Re: THE BRIDGE - Freddie Dawkins (24th Nov 2005 - 11:15:56) Hi, Allan - As you are unfortunately situated in West Sussex - the main local government office you must be referring to will be in Chichester. But by a trick of council boundaries, you're a lot nearer to Liphook than you are Chichester. Bramshott & Liphook Parish Council was advised of the bridge closure just before the news broke locally. From memory, I had a copied letter (as a Parish Councillor) about 2 days before you were advised. All far too late to do much of course. and we had previously reminded Network Rail to avoid the Carnival weekend for closures - because of the disruption caused by road closures and because we know so many people rely on trains to come/go over the Carnival weekend. So what do Network Rail do? Choose the Carnival weekend to start the work, suspend all train services for the whole weekend and cause major disruption on the London/Portsmouth mainline! I think all the business owners affected - and the wider community - need to sit down and discuss what has happened and how we should react - as a community - to Network Rail and the Highways Authority - which in this case is Hampshire County Council. You are quite right - there does seem to be a "Big Brother" attitude by Network Rail and HCC. best rgds - and thanks for a great brunch the other day! Freddie

Re: THE BRIDGE - Allan/B/F/Inn (29th Nov 2005 - 01:35:05) It is the early hours of Tues.,29th Nov. The bridge is in darkness and still closed to traffic! I 'phoned the contract mgr., P.J. this morning to check that it would be open today as promised; oh, no, tomorrow, he replied. But you said it would be today, I said. His response was pretty much along the lines of tough luck. YOU have his tel. no., give him some questions to answer. Freddie, I was not referring to Chichester. As you said in your post the planning was granted by East Hants. so it would be silly of me or anyone else to think that Chichester Dist. Council had any culpability in the granting of planning permission on East Hants. territory. Given the dimension of the effect on local business from the closure of the bridge, it strikes me that any future requests by utilities or other bodies to carry out non- essential servicing projects ought to be answerable to those they will affect the most. ALEX, A challenge:- turn you intellectual energy to this; how much do you reckon the local business community has lost in terms of turnover. A short survey ought to give you a ball park figure. I'll start you off. Put me down for 10k. Take in Sainsbury's, General Wine, the wee shops in Station Rd.How about the Jet Station, The Links, Trax , The Anchor et. al. Bet the figure, if it could be worked out would stagger us. By the way, in response to your short post earlier, there is no compensation to be had. If anyone knows otherwise, WE small businesses would love to know how.

Re: THE BRIDGE - Alex Cameron (30th Nov 2005 - 21:08:40) Allan - i'm flattered you would ask. That would be an interesting question, but i'm not sure how to go about quantifying it. The starting point would assumedly be how much traffic comes through that road normally as you'd need a basis for comparison. Presuming a modest closure timescale of around 6 weeks, we could put 10k on all the businesses as a potential ballpark. How much notice did they give you? Surely they can't just block the road and not compensate the local businesses for the inevitable loss of income they would suffer as a direct result of their actions? I'm not an expert on these things (despite being an expert on almost everything else), but i'm sure you should investigate the issue.

Re: THE BRIDGE - Allan/B/F.Inn (2nd Dec 2005 - 02:17:58) I think your perception of the scale of the cost to local businesses is undeveloped. I know that businesses outside that which you would quite naturally consider local were affected almost as badly as those on our doorstep In short Alex, it cannot be quantified. And that is the very basis of how they are absolved from having to compensate those whose businesses may suffer as a result of "safety works". Sucks dunnit!

Re: THE BRIDGE - Alex Cameron (2nd Dec 2005 - 17:04:38) Totally agree its undeveloped - its very difficult to quantify, but not impossible. Even looking at the very local businesses whould be enough for an investigation. How long did you know about it before they closed it?

Re: THE BRIDGE - LippyChick (2nd Dec 2005 - 18:58:32) Alex Perhaps whilst your busy at your calculator working out business losses suffered by Allan and other local businesses, how about also factoring in the additional costs that the ordinary road users have suffered. Driving from Liphook to - say - Petersfield via the old A3 is the most direct and lowest mileage route. To use the A3 proper involves an additional mileage of approx 4 miles. Assuming the ordinary car does maybe 30 miles to the gallon, someone who has to commute, be it to Petersfield, Milland, Rake or Liss daily is forking out for an extra gallon a week plus. Small fry it may be, but given the numbers of people who've been affected it makes for grim thinking :( Lips x

Re: THE BRIDGE - Chris (3rd Dec 2005 - 06:03:12) Allan, You've probably considered this but would it not be worthwhile contacting all businesses that were or may have been affected and jointly seek compensation?Perhaps even seek advice from a claims solicitor (I hesitate to use the word "small")? That way you can spread any legal costs and present a case by case earnings loss but as a group. It will be time consuming and perhaps to no avail but at least you will have made enough of a case to help prevent this kind of thing from happening again. "And so to Bed", The Sun, Princes GC, The Links etc. etc. must have all suffered some loss of business as a result of this prolonged maintenance along with many others.

Re: THE BRIDGE - Allan@ t/b/fox (4th Dec 2005 - 02:53:42) Chris, One would think that that is the logic of the scenario, but it is not. Back in Nov/Dec, 2001 when they closed the bridge for "major structural repairs" we almost went belly up. It was announced in the local press that the closure would last from the 2nd week in Nov. to the 3rd week in Dec. I consulted my solicitors, who in turn referred to briefs in London. It seemed then that they(railtrack as was then) were so protected by government indemnity that action would be protracted over many years and cost a king's ransom in legal fees. I cannot for one minute think that things are different this time round. The entire business community has been totally screwed by the closure of the bridge to the tune,of, I imagine many millions of pounds. The paintwork on the bridge is now a pleasing shade of green. However, given the cost to the locality,it might as well have been painted by M.A. himself. Was our bridge Network Rail's Sistine Chapel!

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