The last major event on my travels was a trip to Belfast – organised by the CIOB months in advance as part of the Ireland meetings, but we were bounced by the Queen’s 60th Jubilee visit to the province (anyone would think they owned the place… 🙂 ); after frenetic last minute reorganisation by CIOB staff and the conference visit went ahead with a new plan.
The highlight was a visit to the Titanic Quarter a major redevelopment of the old Harland and Wolf docks – the ‘Titanic Signature Building’ with its Titanic experience was fantastic, apparently the Queen enjoyed it too and I have it on very good advice I sat in the same car on the experience ride she did a couple of hours earlier.
My one question though is why do dockland redevelopers make a point of providing very bad access into the area? Traffic access into and out of the Melbourne Docklands redevelopment is terrible, the ‘Titanic Quarter’ has exactly the same problem and its access appears to be worse! Whilst the mixed development may eventually lead to most people living near to their work within the precinct, this takes years to occur and in the interim commuters to the area and residents commuting out of the area deserve better basic planning.
Now to catch up on a month’s backlog.
Pat Weaver
Lynda Bourne
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