Townsplaining: why is Britain so bad at this?

I live in Deganwy, over the "cob" from Conwy (Deganwy, along with Llandudno Junction are under the jurisdiction/are wards of Conwy Town Council though there isn't a strong civic "ownership" of the town itself in my opinion). The trains to Conwy may be every 2 hours and not enough is made of promoting the much busier and larger station of Llandudno Junction 0.5 miles away (with a service every 20 mins or so to various destinations, including London) as a "gateway" station. Welsh Government are introducing the North Wales Metro (to mirror that which has just opened in South Wales) but this lacks ambition. I wrote to my AM to suggest shuttle trains/trams running from Llandudno Junction to Llandudno to improve frequency, movement etc and had a response which suggested a miry of red tape. People are conservative in their outlook when it comes to town planning here (new homes continue to consist only of executive detached homes with integral garages). The new, costly cycle lanes are "shared" spaces with pedestrians rather than separated. This means cycling is only regarded as a "leisurely" pursuit rather than a tangible means of travel (most cyclists stay on the road and are then jeered at by car drivers), there are literally no cycle racks strategically placed in town centres either, . Local politicians tend to collude with a "suburban" rather than an "urban" approach to solutions. The flats you refer to in the brutalist old library building are for holiday accommodation (if built)...there is no commitment to old Conwy being a tangible residential place...most of the terraced collages are holiday lets as there are no parking solutions considered for longer term residence...which is reflected in the feel of the town...you will see some houses can take months to sell as the parking issues are not addressed, As you say, the traffic system....which is one-way...lends a noisy, grubby air to the place which stops you lingering leisurely. The Palace Theatre should be a jewel for Conwy...we badly need an arts cinema offer in the area (I travel to Liverpool for that!). There is no cinema in Llandudno now whereas there used to be many. The Cineworld in Llandudno Junction promotes car use and those visiting Llandudno are unaware of it's existence.....I could go on for hours...

Britain is very centralised. Local government is kept poor and relatively powerless. In consequence high cost schemes can only be paid for by prvite developers and it takes only a small minority to prevent low cost schemes.

As an American visiting the UK, I can say that Britain is still leagues ahead of the USA in terms of townsplanning.

I think everyone in the UK should visit a small or medium sized Dutch town to see how peaceful and pleasant they are. Our town planning is poor and car centric, and I don't think blanket initiatives like Wales's 20mph speed reduction actually do anything - you need to encourage drivers to avoid areas with high pedestrian footfall (or where you want there to be) and make the walkable space much more inviting.

I am Dutch, live in the UK, and have visited Conwy. I share the sense of so many unused opportunities that a town like Conwy would have if only there was more thoughtful urban planning going on. When visiting Conwy, I very much enjoyed the castle and walking through town felt as if it was entirely separate from it. And yes ... the way cars dominate the town adds to that very much. The town that I always kept comparing it to was Carcassonne in southern France. Carcassonne does very much right of what Conwy doesn't seem to do at all. I was surprised how the spirit of the Langue d' Oc is palpably alive everywhere in Carcassonne, while Conwy seems to struggle being Welsh. I enjoyed my visit, we had a lovely lunch there as well, and I hope the town gets a chance to be what it could be.

Yeah the old apprehension that shoppers have to park on street in front of the shop impeded a bypass in my town back in the 80s. Now we are a unattractive "drive through town" with one shop dying after another. (And of course, no free space or money is left to catch up the construction of a bypass to release residents from noise and pollution.)

Conwy is such a pretty town and the traffic is intrusive. I am interested to see what local people think

Note, that Naarden is only one example in the Neterlands. We have many of those old villages. Traffic is diverted around. Woudrichem, Heusden, Linschoten, Kampen, Sloten, just to name a few.

Conwy looks like a beautiful historic town; how have I never heard of it until today?

Park and ride scheme, restrict town parking rights to registered local residents and businesses only.

It’s weirdly exhilarating when your little home town is a subject in a non-Dutch video. Thanks!

St Malo in France is wonderful. No cars except residents inside the city walls. It is vibrant, beautiful etc etc....and the mayor has banned R B&B

Thanks for this revealing short. In essence, motor cars are a menace. Yet motorists insist that towns provide essentially for them and to hell with public transport and pedestrians. Towns are for people, not for motor cars.

Your voice is superb. Felt almost as if i was watching BBC. Conwy seems beautiful despite it's car-centric woes. Would love to visit. Hello from the Netherlands!

Interesting video and kind of coincidentally relevant to me. I grew up on Anglesey and went to school in Colwyn bay. So frequently went through Conwy. I remember the bypass being built and hardly ever went to Conwy again. Eventually my wife and I emigrated to the Netherlands and we've noticed the focus on people rather than traffic. Here cycling into town is the logical option and getting into the car is really not usually the best option.

It's great seeing somewhere in Wales being used to talk about urban planning...even if it is as a bad example 😅 I live in Glan Conwy on the other side of the estuary and I love Conwy but hate the cars. I live close enough to cycle but the existing cycle paths are patchy and are all shared surfaces. If we visit for a day by car we do try to park outside the walls but do park inside for a quick visit. I talked to a MP for Shotton a few days ago and he was skeptical of the pedestrianisation of the high street in Holywell. He felt that local business suffered without on street parking and that pedestrianisation only works in cities. The high street in Conwy has such a narrow pavement that there is no room for pedestrians to pass. We definitely need to learn from the continental brethren. There are rumours of a cycle path down the Conwy valley and perhaps a bridge across from Glan Conwy to the RSPB nature reserve which would create a short cut to Conwy but I haven't seen any definitive plan yet so I'll believe it when I see it.

I love how towncentres thrived for centuries but now it's supposedly instant death if cars are restricted or banned

I felt immediately more comfortable when you switched to Naarden and knew it was the quiet that did it. Sadly if you look at a map of UK road noise, it's very hard to find a place where you don't have to put up with it in your daily life. We seem to have plastered the whole country with roads and many go right through residential and commercial areas.

Im a Brit that lives near Naarden. I hate to say this but, comparing the old fashioned mindset and planning of the UK and the Dutch is like comparing sour apples and chocolate! Bikes are a great way to free up traffic, but There's no way you would get most Brits to even use a bike, never mind set up roads for cycling lanes.

An interesting comparison. I have enjoyed the relative quiet of a few Dutch towns (though I haven’t been to Naarden), and really envy their approach to accessibility/mobility. I also stayed in Conwy Youth Hostel a decade or so ago (arriving by that infrequent train service). I thought the town was charming, but I was very aware of the road traffic, and this video makes the contrast between the two approaches very clear.