New Proposals for Parking Scheme

Thank you! It appears that the Council have listened to the residents!

Many of you will be aware of the revised plans for a parking management scheme in the hospital area. The Council have dropped the original eight options which they consulted residents on back in February and are preparing a new consultation on the latest proposals. The Council has held discussions with the Department for Transport who have suggested that special permission can be given for a parking scheme where bays do not have to be marked out on the road. The key points are as follows (you can find the whole report here):

• Parking zones set up where parking is restricted to permit holders only.
• Zones identified by signs at entry points (e.g. at the end of each road entering the zone).
• No need for parking bays allowing parking on both sides of the road so not reducing total amount of parking space.
• Possible marked disabled space for residents who require them -Limited visitor parking bays in areas where road widths allow bays to be marked (e.g. maximum 2 hours parking).
• Restrictions in place in back lanes and at junctions
• Permits available for every household in zones - free for first permit, a charge for the second and charges increasing for further permits if required.
• Visitor permits for each household (whether they have a vehicle/regular permit themselves) allow visitors to residents to park.
• Pay and display on hospital side of Kayll Road.
• A limited number of permits available for hospital staff. The numbers allowed in each zone will be restricted and the total number will be reduced over time.

The report suggests that by using these signed 'gateways', people will be discouraged from driving through the zones looking for parking, thereby reducing the amount of traffic in the area. It also states that since bays will not be required, the total amount of space available for parking will be maintained as it is and this exceeds the current demand for parking by residents.

Results of Consultation

Just under 17% of people returned the consultation form to the council back in February this year (does this low number reflect the confusion that the presentations caused?). The results reveal that the majority of these people are in favour of some sort of a scheme being introduced (53.6% in favour of a scheme vs 46.6% preferring to keep things as they are).

The options given were:
1 - Residents only permit-based scheme
2 - Option 1 plus limited free parking
3 - Permit based scheme, (residents, hospital staff & visitors)
4 - Option 3 plus limited free parking
5a - Pay & Display plus permits for residents
5b - Pay & Display plus permits for residents & hospital staff
6 - Traffic management (restrictions at junctions)
7 - Limited permit scheme in cul-de-sacs & small networks of streets
8 - Leave parking as it is

Figure 1: The percentage of people favouring each of the eight options.

Figure 2: Residents were asked to number each option in order of preference. This graph shows the total score for each option.

Next Meeting: Tuesday 15th September

The next meeting of the Residents' Association is Tuesday 15th September at 7.00pm in St Mary Magdelene Church Hall, Wilson Street.

Minutes of the last meeting are posted below.

Apologies for a lack of updates over the Summer, hopefully we will now be back to at least weekly updates.

Over the last few weeks work on Chester Road has been completed and the new traffic lights and no-right-turns are up and running. Work has also started on the redevelopment at the hospital. Hopefully, neither are causing too many problems to residents. Apparently the changes on Chester Road are 'experimental' and the council are keeping an eye on the situation.


Minutes of Meeting held in St Mary Magdalene Church Hall
Tuesday 28th July 2009

In Amanda’s absence, the secretary explained that following the previous meeting, letters had been written to Cllr O’Connor, Cllr Paul Watson, and The Council Standards Committee expressing our disappointment and anger at the way the Extra-ordinary Planning Application Meeting on June 16th had been conducted. Letters were sent to Cllr Forbes, Cllr Martin and Cllr Morrissey thanking them for their efforts on our behalf. A letter was sent to Mr John Munns at the Department of Transport requesting that he look favourably on our position regarding the car parking situation. Letters were also sent to Mp’s Chris Mullin, Fraser Kemp and Bill Etherington requesting their support and inviting them to attend our meetings. Replies had been received from Chris Mullin (who stated he had written to the leader of the council on our behalf, Mr Munns stated he had already advised the council on possible signing approaches for resident only parking that the council could adopt. Bill Etherington promised to approach the council on our behalf. Cllr Watson wrote stating a substantive response to our complaint would follow from Mr R Raynor, Chief Solicitor for the council. Linda stated she had also written to the Prime Minister stating our case.

Paul informed the meeting that the Council had decided to scrap previous plans put forward in their February Consultation programme. They were now looking at residents only parking – permits would be free for 1st car with a minor charge for 2nd cars/visitors permits. Parking meters to be proposed for Kayll Road. Each area to be a different zone with the hospital still requesting a number of staff permits for each zone.

The meeting discussed the fact that if the hospital had staff permits to park in our streets this would still affect the residents. If successful the scheme would push staff and visitors to park further out and cause problems for those residents. Eventually the Council and the Hospital would have to consider alternative parking onsite. The Park and Ride schemes were now up and running but as yet still no good for staff as the last buses left the hospital site too early for some staff leaving work. The meeting also discussed other points raised such as yellow lines in back lanes were needed.

Mark stated that because of Amanda Robinson getting the residents together the council and the hospital trust had been forced to listen to us. Any further consultation process by the council would have to include the residents committee. The meeting wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Following discussion the committee agreed it was now not necessary to protest at the following day’s council meeting. If necessary we could protest at future meetings if needed.

Thomas noted that the Echo had not been giving the traffic problems the attention it deserved lately.

Maureen S pointed out that she had recently phoned the police about an obstruction in Bexley Street. They were there in 20 minutes. The police officer stated if there were any problems the police wanted to know about them. The telephone contact number is on the blog (03456 04343). Always ask for a log number.

Maureen L stated residents had fought for years for bollards in Washington Street. Following a recent car crash destroying bollards she telephoned the council. Following advice given at our meetings she knew how to complain and the bollards were replaced the same day. Other incidents involving reporting to the police were also mentioned. Police will attempt to find the owner of the car, but if not found they can ticket the car for obstruction.

The meeting closed at 8.15pm
The next meeting would be on Tuesday 15th September in St Mary Magdalene’s Church Hall at 7.0pm.