BRIDPORT town centre, 2022. Locals and visitors stroll across Bucky Doo in the autumn sunshine, chatting and pausing to admire the latest sculpture, one of many scattered around which have boosted the town’s reputation as a year-round destination. People linger at the stalls in the middle of South Street, and, attracted by the shops’ window displays, wander in search of a bargain or that dress they’ve never seen elsewhere.

Others sit at outside tables, taking a late lunch, drinking tea and cake, listening to the music drifting across from the new permanent stage.

Here’s the town crier, persuaded out of retirement with a new hat and the fact that now, shorn of South Street’s traffic noise and pollution, he can once again breathe and be heard: the free electric bus service, circling the town centre and linking the suburbs, is to be every five minutes! Likewise the bus from the Broomhills park-and-ride is so busy there’s talk of converting it to an ultra-lightweight tram. 

Not everyone’s happy. The middle-aged petrolhead with a pint too much ale inside him reckons his human rights have been infringed because he can’t drive straight through town between ten and four. But the kids laugh at him: why own a car when the buses with wi-fi are so much better and the car-club does good deals when a car’s essential?

Even the petrolhead admits he’s been able to tighten his belt a notch now he walks into town. And then there’s that transport historian (yes, that’s me), still banging on about how close a call it was in 2017, even though we’ve had pedestrianization for over 50 years and studies show that despite businesses’ worries about deliveries and loss of trade, most times a trial shows how problems can be solved and then profits go up....


Colin Divall
South Mill Lane
Bridport