It has been a long held practice in modern town planning that when creating paths you leave the planned area be and let people make their own routes. Once it has been established how people use an area then that is when the town planners can create hard paths.

Orkney planners have decided to adopt this successful practice to ease traffic flow across our islands. It has been noticed that where a sign says ‘Passing Place‘ it actually means to many motorists ‘Parking Place‘. Indeed for some it even represents a place you can install your mobile home overnight.

This great leap forward in traffic management has been hailed as an innovative approach to what many view as an annoyance when using a single track road, meeting an oncoming vehicle, and having the ‘Passing Place‘ they were aiming for ‘parked up‘. There will be no doubt now as signage will be changed to actually read ‘Parking Place‘ which some planners hope will be read as ‘Passing Place‘.

Cygnet Swanson’s Triumph Herald (photo DeFacto)

The Orkney News caught up with local community councillor Cygnet Swanson, 82, for his comments.

” It’s very much needed. Twice I have had my Triumph Herald land up in a ditch when I thought there was a Passing Place an oncoming vehicle  could pull into only to find out that it was a ‘Parking Place’.”

And he added:

“ Of course, I hae no bother at all when I’m in the combine.”

The success of the scheme will be monitored for 3 weeks and after consultation, including an extensive survey,  it will be extended to take in disabled bays. Asked for her views on the extension Mrs Flett McGinty, 36, a user of Disabled Parking Places said:

“That is great news. Sometimes folk glare at me for parking in a Disabled Bay just because I’m young fit and strong. But what they fail to realise is that I suffer from having the ‘selfish gene’ and I need to park in those places.”

Yet again Orkney is leading the way in innovative solutions to traffic flow problems. Next on the agenda: wheelie bins that stay put.

Reporter: Fergus Graemsay