THE CAUSEWAY GATES
A Letter to the Editor
Midhurst Petworth Observer

The New Oak Gates at the Entrance to The Causeway

What a relief! Some splendid new oak gates were erected yesterday by the Cowdray Heritage Trust at the North Street end of the Causeway, at last replacing the drunken wire-mesh barriers which have made the entrance look more like a building site these last two months since the opening of Cowdray Castle to the public.

Unfortunately, the adjoining post and rail fence which is in a dilapidated state won’t be repaired or renewed for some weeks yet, I’m told. Chichester District Council have only just become aware that they are responsible for the fence under a 1964 Covenant which transferred the fence around the car park and bus station as far as the mini-roundabout to them from the Cowdray Estate,

The entrance to Cowdray Castle still looks a mess whilst the gates are being renovated in Suffolk; but in image terms overall things are now definitely looking up. Let’s hope by the middle of the summer we shall be getting more visitors to the Castle and to the Town who may have in the meantime been put off by our ‘hick’ appearance.

When we need every visitor we can get to spend in our shops, pubs, restaurants and hotels, to keep our Town alive commercially, I get very angry with major visitor attractions such as the Weald & Downland, Petworth House and Stansted Park sticking predatory advertising on our street furniture and roadside verges.

But we’ve no one to blame but ourselves. We’ve become a town of sign junkies oblivious to the negative image we create with visitors. At some point we’ve got to be weaned off this expensive ’habit’ and return to a tidier, more orderly way of promoting local events; that point may be imminent. WSCC have been planning for the past year for a new ‘managed’ system for signage which is now at the stage of final consultation with other councils and boroughs.

Editor, Midhurst Pages
Tuesday June 12th 2007

Addendum: According to CDC Head of Car Parks W.L.West & Sons have been contracted to erect a new fence, and we've been informed that work will commence on the 13th of August and will take a few days to complete..
Update: 28th August 2007 . Here is the new fence - Click Slideshow

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