Consultation

The Council have sent out the revised plans for a parking scheme in the Hospital area.

They have responded to the main concerns that residents expressed to the initial consultation back in February of this year in that:

• The first permit for each household will be free (second permits are to cost £20).
• There is no need to mark out bays on the roads

Unfortunately, it would appear that in order to provide permits to residents free of charge, the Council are proposing to raise funds for the scheme by selling a number of permits to hospital staff. However, these will be distributed throughout the six zones to reduce the impact in any one area.

The Council are again holding exhibitions on the proposals:

"at St. Gabriel’s Church, St. Gabriel’s Avenue on Monday 30th November 2009. City Council staff will be on hand at between 9am-12noon; 1pm-4pm and 6pm-8pm"

and

"At St Bede United Reformed Church on Thursday 3rd December between the hours of 9am-5pm. Staff will be available to answer any questions and provide further information on the proposal"

"There will also be a seven-day exhibition at Kayll Road Library from Monday 7th December"

The full consultation can be viewed at www.sunderland.gov.uk/traffic

Residents "Option 9"

Following our recent campaign the Council are now putting forward your consideration a revised plan in order to help solve the problems caused by hospital employees and visitors parking in our side streets. You will receive their proposed plans through your door in the very near future followed by a publicity campaign. The council’s previous publicity campaign gave the residents seven options to choose from (all at a cost to the residents). Lee Martin (Conservative) has since put forward his “Option 8”.

The residents want a simple but effective solution to this problem.
The Association members have put together at the following points to be put to the council:

1. Free Permits For Residents only parking in all the streets surrounding the hospital site for first car, with a fixed minimum cost for additional residents cars.

2. Free visitors permits for unlimited stay by friends, relations, business agents etc.

3. Limited parking provision for non-permit holders for up to 2 hours only.

4. Yellow lines in all back lanes (with residents' parking allowed).

5. All junctions to be kept clear with either bollards or extended double yellow lines from main streets where necessary.

6. No permits for hospital staff. The Hospital Trust must be made accountable for the car parking problem they have caused and therefore should resolve staff and visitor parking issues themselves.

Thank you for your continued support.

Meeting: Tuesday 10th

The next Residents' Association meeting will be held tomorrow at 7pm in St Mary Magdelenes Church Hall, Wilson Street.

Discussion will include last weeks meeting with Mr Pickering from the Council and the forthcoming consultation on the parking scheme, including the recent newsletter from Cllr Lee Martin.

Everyone is welcome. If you can't make it to the meetings, the minutes will be posted here on the blog.

Update: Parking Scheme

Members of the Residents' Association committee today met with Mr Steven Pickering, deputy corporate director of City Services, to discuss the issues affecting local residents. Mr Pickering explained how following a reorganisation within the council, his department is taking on responsibility for highways, traffic and parking within the city.

Not surprisingly, the discussion focussed on the hospital area parking issues.

Mr Pickering informed us that the latest proposals for a parking management scheme would be sent out to residents on 23rd November with a consultation event to be held on the 30th of this month. (More information will be published on this blog as soon as possible).

Prior to the meeting we had been informed by a council member that the proposals included a number of points which we raised with Mr Pickering.

Key issues include that in addition to the first permit for each household being free, the charge for second, third, etc. permits should be low e.g. £50 is excessive for a second permit.

Concerns were also voiced over a suggestion that 400 permits could be sold to the hospital, allowing staff to park in residential streets. Mr Pickering was told that this is unacceptable and would simply be encouraging the people who are causing the problems to continue to park without regard for the residents.

It was made clear that allowing parking in back lanes would cause a number of problems, in particular that it creates difficulties for residents moving cars into and out of yards/garages.

Mr Pickering was also told about the increased traffic in the 'ABC streets' and through St Gabriels Estate following the changes to the traffic lights at the junction of Chester Road, Kayll Road and Ormonde Street. It was also highlighted that the additional traffic caused by through traffic as well as people driving around the streets looking for parking was causing large numbers of potholes.

The 'no right turn' signs and road markings have been removed from the entrance to the streets off Chester Road opposite the hospital. We hope that the situation here will be confirmed shortly since many people are confused as to whether right turns are now permitted or not.

The Committee would like to thank Mr Pickering for his time this afternoon and for listening to the concerns of the residents.