"Businesses Open as Usual" say the signs on the High Street in Melksham ... currently (and for 14 weeks) a one-way system while various pavement works are being done.

Who wrote that sign? ... for he certainly doesn't know Melksham!

I took my customers into one of the businesses in the effected area at lunch time today. The electricity was off over the busy lunch time period ... no lighting, no way of opening the till and the staff were relearning the art of manual arithmetic. It seemed that the road workers had disconnected a cable and called in the Electric people to fix it. The road people were then saying "don't ask us - it's the electric people ..." and the electric people were saying "it's the road people who done it - we're just fixing it"

The businesses in the High Street are NOT open as usual - they're open and struggling to look after their customers, and to maintain their customer base. The lack of light to see the goods on sale in the shops, no working tills ... and the absence of hot water to make a cup of coffee, and of electricity to cook - in a cafe, at lunchtime - is something that they were not pre-alerted to. The sound of pneumatic drills, and of alarms going off, in the road works is also effecting their businesses.

Perhaps the person who wrote the signs would care to visit the businesses in the High Street, apologise for the effect that the works are having on them, and make some sort of recompense for lost trade. And if he could explain why the similar works at Lidl last winter took a handful of days and didn't result in any road closures / traffic diversions, but these are to take 14 weeks.

(written 2009-08-11, updated 2009-08-12)

 M201 - Well House Manor - Around Melksham, Wiltshire
  [437] Outside of the box - (2005-09-06)
  [676] Melksham, Wiltshire - (2006-04-08)
  [805] Melksham Carnival Parade - (2006-07-16)
  [811] Melksham in Bloom - (2006-07-22)
  [830] Butterflies in a Wiltshire garden - (2006-08-12)
  [847] Image maps for navigation - a straightforward example - (2006-08-28)
  [866] A lazy programmer is a good programmer - (2006-09-15)
  [879] Tuesday night is party night - (2006-09-26)
  [929] Presenting Melksham - for a weekend away in Wiltshire - (2006-11-17)
  [957] Improving the historic town of Melksham - (2006-11-30)
  [977] Melksham and Norwich - (2006-12-10)
  [1117] Newport Male Voice Choir - (2007-03-24)
  [1137] Wiltshire Circles - (2007-04-07)
  [1177] Sorting out for a site map - (2007-05-05)
  [1206] Where and When - can you place the picture? - (2007-05-27)
  [1266] Party in the Park - (2007-07-14)
  [1271] Till the cows come home - (2007-07-19)
  [1330] While waiting for Melksham Post Office - (2007-09-02)
  [1341] Moving to Melksham? Househunting map. - (2007-09-09)
  [1343] Melksham Laundrette - (2007-09-09)
  [1360] Asda in Melksham - Welcome or not? - (2007-09-21)
  [1368] Getting the local voice heard - (2007-09-26)
  [1436] A little touring help during a business trip to England - (2007-11-18)
  [1451] More PHP sample and demonstration programs - (2007-12-01)
  [1928] Melksham Oak Community School, Melksham, Wiltshire - (2008-12-07)
  [1977] Going round the block - (2009-01-04)
  [1986] Walk to Bowerhill - (2009-01-10)
  [2008] The Month Ahead - What is happening in Melksham - (2009-01-25)
  [2043] Confidence, Customer Service and Tourism in Melksham - (2009-02-15)
  [2064] East of Melksham Countryside - (2009-03-02)
  [2066] Melksham Industrial - (2009-03-04)
  [2142] Riverside Development - (2009-04-26)
  [2168] In honour of the photograph, I present ... a walk from Reybridge to Lacock - (2009-05-10)
  [2175] Melksham in pictures - (2009-05-11)
  [2253] Walks in and around Melksham, Wiltshire - (2009-06-21)
  [2262] History is not always pretty - (2009-06-30)
  [2297] Standing on the corner, Melksham Carnival - (2009-07-19)
  [2329] Great to be in Melksham - (2009-08-08)
  [2480] Pantomimes around Melksham - 2009/2010 season - (2009-10-28)
  [2497] Brown horses in Melksham - (2009-11-08)
  [2528] Melksham Christmas Lights - (2009-12-05)
  [2585] Consultation in Melksham, on Melkshams future - (2010-01-17)
  [2588] Freddies Wood and the K and A Canal - (2010-01-17)
  [2665] Early Spring walk in Melksham - (2010-03-07)
  [2691] New brochures for the Melksham area - (2010-03-24)
  [2708] The bull on the footpath - (2010-04-04)
  [2716] Melksham in Pictures - (2010-04-10)
  [2739] Melksham Scouts - (2010-04-25)
  [2829] Dauncey Gardens, Melksham - (2010-06-27)
  [2854] Melksham Food and Drink Fair and Town Crier Competition - (2010-07-04)
  [2950] Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, turns first sod in Melksham Link Canal - (2010-09-09)
  [3023] Autumn walk from Bowerhill - (2010-10-31)
  [3050] Views of Melksham - November 2010 - (2010-11-13)
  [3209] Seeing Electricity Pylons near Melksham - (2011-03-21)
  [3227] Her favourite store - (2011-04-02)
  [3232] Around and about Melksham in more pictures - (2011-04-05)
  [3248] What have these pictures in common? - (2011-04-16)
  [3258] Morning in Melksham - (2011-04-23)
  [3266] Easter on the Canal - near Melksham, Wiltshire - (2011-04-26)
  [3305] Getting away from the madding crowd - an intercontinental journey - (2011-05-27)
  [3337] Home Grown Pigs, near Melksham Station - (2011-06-26)
  [3389] Plenty to do in Melksham - (2011-08-13)
  [3470] Currently pictured in Melksham - (2011-10-09)
  [3499] Images of Melksham - (2011-10-29)
  [3502] Sunday Evening ... newest and oldest Melksham pictures - (2011-10-30)
  [3507] Melksham Forward - meeting summary and pictures - (2011-11-04)
  [3520] Quintessentially English - scenes from our Wiltshire town - (2011-11-14)
  [3525] Melksham has a heart - come and see the pictures. Sunday, 11 to 3, Assembly Hall - (2011-11-18)
  [3526] Melksham has a Heart - Montage picture for sale - (2011-11-20)
  [3543] Some different pictures from Melksham - (2011-12-07)
  [3569] Images of the new year in Melksham - (2012-01-05)
  [3605] Snow comes to Melksham, Wiltshire - pictures - (2012-02-10)
  [3644] The way of the Prioress - Melksham history pictured today - (2012-03-09)
  [3646] Exploring Melksham with a film maker - (2012-03-09)
  [3647] Along the brook - East Melksham to Melksham - (2012-03-10)
  [3656] TrainWest 2012 - 14th and 15th April, Melksham, Wiltshire - (2012-03-16)
  [3657] Basham Festival, Melksham, early August 2012 - a welcome - (2012-03-16)
  [3659] Welcome to Melksham - our new communities - (2012-03-18)
  [3692] Deeper than Art - An exhibition of the tattoo Canvas - Melksham - (2012-04-10)
  [3697] Events in Melksham - read all about them, and tell us about yours - (2012-04-15)
  [3703] A Museum for Melksham History. Open from 12th May 2012. - (2012-04-21)
  [3704] The Bowerhill Villager - a newsletter for Bowerhill, Melksham - (2012-04-22)
  [3712] Some unpublished and historic pictures - Museum of Melksham - (2012-04-28)
  [3720] Melksham ATC - freedom of the town - (2012-05-05)
  [3735] A walk around Melksham this morning. Can you place all of these? - (2012-05-17)
  [3744] Short Web Addresses for Melksham - (2012-05-30)
  [3771] Fine evening, country walk from Melksham - pictures - (2012-06-21)
  [3822] Town Clean - Melksham - (2012-07-29)
  [3837] Evening behind Melksham Spa - (2012-08-12)
  [3864] Guest Guide for Well House Manor and Melksham - (2012-09-18)
  [3869] How have Melksham shops changed in 60 years? - (2012-09-24)
  [3897] Autumn scenes from Melksham - (2012-10-16)
  [3944] Melksham Christmas Lights, 2012 - (2012-12-05)
  [3949] Melksham Spa from Woolmore Farm - (2012-12-09)
  [3960] Picture - between Lacock and Melksham - (2012-12-21)
  [3962] Melksham welcomes visitors - new blue plaque trail and more - (2012-12-27)
  [4084] New Pictures - Melksham Pack Horse Bridge - (2013-05-12)
  [4119] Melksham - Flower Town - (2013-06-20)
  [4141] My pictures of Melksham Carnival, 13th July 2013 - (2013-07-14)
  [4145] After the storm - (2013-07-29)
  [4151] Tell me a bit about Melksham - (2013-08-10)
  [4169] Around and about - Melksham - (2013-09-08)
  [4357] Seeing Christmas Coming to Melksham - (2014-12-20)
  [4701] Pretty at the station too - (2016-07-06)

Back to Finding literals rather than patterns in Lua

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Forward to Ten years in Melksham - looking forward to ten more.

All change - Wiltshire Parliamentary
Printed Directories - the start of the updating season
Ternary operators alternatives - Perl and Lua lazy operators
Ten years in Melksham - looking forward to ten more.
Businesses effected by road works in Melksham
Finding literals rather than patterns in Lua
Dot, dot, dot in Lua - variable length parameter lists
The indexed and hashed parts of a Lua table
Automatically initialising Lua variables the first time
Reading a data file and sensing EOF in Lua