NO MORE EXITS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19669, 12 July 1929, Page 16

NO MORE EXITS.

LANCASTER PARK BOARD'S DECISION. CONGESTION CAUSED BY TRAMS. Maintaining that the Board had done everything within reason to minimise congestion at the Lancaster Park gates, members of the Lancaster Park Board of Control pointed out last evening that the position of the Tramway Board's lines and the arrangements for coping with the crowds left a great deal to be desired. The discussion was occasioned by a letter from the Town Clerk, which "had been held over from a previous meeting. The communication was in reply to a letter from the Board stating that it could not see its way to provide an additional exit gate on the west side of the main entrance to the Park, as requested by the Council. The letter stated that the Town Clerk had been directed by the By-laws Committee of the Council to inform the Board that the Chief Traffic Inspector had advised he had been assured by the Board when it arranged for the covering of the side-channel at the Park entrance, that an additional exit would be provided in the position referred to. The Council, on this understanding, made no charge for the covering of the channel, as is done in all other cases, and he was directed to ask if the Board would reconsider the matter, asking it to give effect to the arrangement entered into as stated. The secretary, Mr J. O. McGillivray, said he had given the Council no such understanding, but he had promised to put the matter before the Board. "The Tramway Board have not helped us as much as they should," said Mr W. H. Winsor. "They have the tram tracks on the wrong side of the road so far as we are concerned, and have not complied with our request to shift them. This is the cause of a good deal of the trouble. Ours is a greater need than the Tramway Board's, for not only do we deal with the thousands who come out of the Park, together with the bicycles and motor-cars, but we have to arrange for the tramway passengers also. The Tramway Board has helped us in many ways, but in this matter it has not met us. We have done everything in reason to improve the exit."

Mr VT. Simpson said the Board had done everything possible, and the front exit was quite satisfactory in discharging the crowds. The fact that all the people left bv the front gate was commented upon by Air C. S. McCully. ''The ideal is for them to oe distributed from exits all round the Park," he remarked. Th chairman (Mr A. E. McPhail): It is the Chief Traffic Inspector who is making the complaints, not the Tramway Board. He has difficulty in getting the trams through the crowds. The tram drivers refuse to answer Lis signals because they will not risk driving through the people at the gates. Mr Winsor: In that case tlu-v will just have to wait. Mr McCullv remarked that if the trams were asked to load up in Lancaster street and to bank up as far as the Park gates, the one furthest away from the exit would move off first. A member remarked that if the public were asked to walk so far to reach the first tram, manv of then) would be inclined to walk the whole way to the Square. "That is a ridiculous statement," said Mr W. 11. Winsor. "The crowds at the Sydney cricket ground have much further to walk than would be the case here." The chairman said the Board had increased the exits to the Park 200 per cent. Motor traffic had been diverted from the street. Extra exits had been put in at Leicester street, and extra exits from the ramp and from the enclosure. Mr MeCully moved that the attention of the Council be drawn to the fact that adequate exits had been provided at th<£ Park, but that other local bodies had not given all the a--' ance they might have done, partic... ,rly in the matter of the tramway arrangements outside the Park.