Work on the re-paving of the streets around St John's is moving on a-pace, now that the specially tailored slabs to fit over the water drainage channel running down the middle of the thoroughfare have arrived. The area on the church side of the thoroughfare (they tackle one side at a time) opposite the Queen's Arcade from St John Street down to the churchyard path is nearly complete. Work in front of the Old Library on the Trinity Street side is now complete and attention has shifted to the Howells Department store side of the thoroughfare. It must be difficult for the store management, as the enclosing of the area for work takes out one of their three entrances on Trinity Street.
Some of the teams working on preparing the ground for the repaving are working Sundays. 7/7 working isn't all that common-place apart from the site security people. It's just as well to press on with some of the most disruptive aspects when there are few people around, a lot safer, when excavation vehicles are moving around in confined areas. One can't have any illusion about the sacredness of Sundays. I guess Sundays are sacred to those who make that choice and pay the price. Enough said.
It won't be long now before the work moves up-street towards the Market and the church - another week and work on the St John Street side, and the thoroughfare in front of the Owain Glyndwr pub will be complete. I'll have to find out what's proposed for managing traffic when the next section is being done, so that I know what to tell church people coming for Sunday services, or dropping stuff off at the tea room. We've got a few irritable weeks ahead of us.
This should be the last week of interior disruption in church, with scaffolding due to come down at the end of the week. The renovation work, internally and externally, has inserted a degree of uncertainty into church life and this has led to a 20% drop in attendance. Visitors looking around during the week, as far as was permissible in a building under occupation made comments that implied they thought we'd been closed during the redecoration. It was a matter of pride to say that we'd been open throughout the entire five months this has lasted for worship, and with few exceptions, for the tea room as well.
Some of the teams working on preparing the ground for the repaving are working Sundays. 7/7 working isn't all that common-place apart from the site security people. It's just as well to press on with some of the most disruptive aspects when there are few people around, a lot safer, when excavation vehicles are moving around in confined areas. One can't have any illusion about the sacredness of Sundays. I guess Sundays are sacred to those who make that choice and pay the price. Enough said.
It won't be long now before the work moves up-street towards the Market and the church - another week and work on the St John Street side, and the thoroughfare in front of the Owain Glyndwr pub will be complete. I'll have to find out what's proposed for managing traffic when the next section is being done, so that I know what to tell church people coming for Sunday services, or dropping stuff off at the tea room. We've got a few irritable weeks ahead of us.
This should be the last week of interior disruption in church, with scaffolding due to come down at the end of the week. The renovation work, internally and externally, has inserted a degree of uncertainty into church life and this has led to a 20% drop in attendance. Visitors looking around during the week, as far as was permissible in a building under occupation made comments that implied they thought we'd been closed during the redecoration. It was a matter of pride to say that we'd been open throughout the entire five months this has lasted for worship, and with few exceptions, for the tea room as well.
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