Battered bollard

Richmond Council's attempt to control bad motorists from abusing the approach to the small parking area on the north side of Ham Common, at the entrance to Great South Avenue, have had another setback when some spectacularly bad driving damaged one of the posts, the same one that was knocked over in March.

Perhaps cars should be banned from this area totally to protect the many walkers and dogs who use this route.

Another bollard is demolished

There has been another casualty in the never-ending war between bad motorists and the bollards designed to protect us from them. This bollard fell in the line of duty on the corner of Upper Ham Road and Ham Common, an area very familiar with the antics of bad drivers.

Broken tree

The foliage in the bottom centre of the screen comes from a high branch that has broken but with just enough of it left to hold the branch off the ground.

Common parking

Ham Fair is the biggest event in Ham each year and it is always good to go and to see so many other people there enjoying themselves. 

Unfortunately the Fair also brings traffic on Upper Ham Road to a frequent stand-still as visitors are allowed to park half on the road and half on the Common. The car on the left here is stationary while vehicles, like the bus in the distance, struggle to make progress on the narrowed road.

Wrong place, wrong time

My brief investigation of signs on Ham Common ends with this one by Ham Ponds. The two things to notice are that it is not on a formal noticeboard, despite there being several nearby, and it is out of date. 

Given that HAPA&AG organise litter picks in that area every month it is a little surprising that it has not been removed yet.

Lack of Information Board

Richmond Council went through a spell of introducing new signs for open spaces several years ago (I had a little moan then) and now I am moaning about the way that ones with display areas are updated.

This board on the southern tip of Ham Common is close to a Community Board on Ham Parade which may explain why it is not updated regularly, though that is no excuse for the lack of eye-catching content. I find it hard to believe that anyone ever reads these notices. 

 

The largest notice on display is a text-heavy announcement for last year's Ham Fair.

Another post knocked over

The battle to try and get motorists to park carefully at the entrance to Great South Avenue has had another setback. One of the three concrete posts installed in September, to replace the damaged wood ones, has been knocked out of the ground.

I will be interested to see how the Council responds (I have reported it) but getting motorists to behave is quite a challenge.

Temporary repairs

A few weeks ago I mentioned that several of the posts placed at the entrance to Great South Avenue on the north side of Ham Common had been destroyed by incompetent drivers and since then it looks as though at least two of the posts have been reinstated and at least one of those has been knocked out again.

It all seems rather pointless and I will not mention these posts again unless Richmond Council get serious and use a more serious deterrent for bad driving.

I have only mentioned them at all because they are a visual measure of the threats pedestrians face constantly from bad drivers whether crossing the road or just walking along the pavement.

Toad Patrollers

Toad Patrollers are on duty at this time every year helping toads to cross roads on their annual migration  and signs like these encourage drivers to play their part by looking out for toads on the road.

I first noticed this sign on 28 February (that is when this photo was taken) and I note that two years ago I posted a similar picture at the beginning of the month.

Green plastic

The lesson of the bright green cricket nets does not seem to have been learned and Ham Common has again been polluted by bright green plastic.

Early flowers

The strip of Ham Common lying to the east of St Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church does not do much for the area, being dominated by the access roads and the houses, but it does have a few bulbs that provide some early flecks of colour. A lot more bulbs would be nice.

Winter trees

While this blog is mostly about things that people may not have noticed I also like to post reminders of common things that some people may take for granted through familiarity and these trees on Ham Common are definitely worth pausing to admire.

To Ham Village

The bus stop on Ham Common seems to have confused Ham Village with Ham Parade.

The directions to Cassel Hospital seem unnecessary too because if you are looking at the sign then you can see the hospital through the glass on the left, but it is an important destination and the directions to it are correct.

Trench to Jude Gate

The section of Ham Common trapped between the main road and the access road in the north west corner is bit of a mess with quite a lot of tarmac compared to the area of greenery and it was made more messy when this trench was constructed to bring services to the rebuilt Jude Gate.

High and dry

The recently rebuilt island in the pond on Ham Common is looking very high and dry at the moment, the vegetation around the edge has died and it looks as though it sits too high in the water for the wildlife to access it easily.

I hope that the problem is just a result of the unusual rainfall pattern this year and that it looks in better health next year.

Ham Fair banner

Banners promoting Ham Fair on Saturday 8 June have appeared on Ham Common, and they are not very good. Unfortunately having quickly spotted some issues with it the natural temptation is to go looking for more and so the messenger becomes the story and the message gets lost.

The main problem is that the text "HAM FAIR" is just too small, particularly in relation to the size of the image. 

I cannot be bothered to look the font up but the "R" at the end of "FAIR" looks out of place with the trailing serif. The "J" in "June" looks unnecessarily odd too. In both cases it looks like an quirky font is being used just for those letters when the rest of the text is in standard san serif.

A rule for banners and posters is to avoid clutter and if that had been followed then it would say "8" rather that "8th" and the times would be "11am to 4:30pm" or even just "11 to 4:30".

Facing the wrong way

I have sat on this bench on Ham Common many times and its positioning has always confused me. All the other benches on the Common face in towards the centre but this one faces out towards the traffic.

Lurid green nets

Ham Common has been scarred by the new lurid green cricket nets which have become the most visible thing on the Common to the detriment of everything else.

To show the impact I took this photo from some distance away (the tree intruding on the left shows that I was on the edge of the common) and even though the nets are a small part of the scene the dominate it.

I can only hope that the awfulness of these will has be appreciated by those responsible for them and that they will be replaced quickly.

Barren island

I have not seen anyone working on the island in the pond on Ham Common for a while but I hope that more work is planned as it is looking very barren at the moment just as the vegetation around the pond is welcoming Spring.

Cricket club shed

The local cricket club has a shed that it uses for storage on the south side of Ham Common. It is a neat little shed, let down a little by the extension, and it deserves to be looked after so it is good to see some repairs being done. Hopefully they have found a matching paint for the finish.