Next Meeting: Tuesday 12th January

Happy New Year to all residents.

The next Residents Association meeting will be held on Tuesday 12th January at 7pm at St Josephs Parish Centre, Rutland Street. All welcome.

A summary of the Decembers meeting is posted below:

Minutes of Meeting held on Tuesday 8th December 2009
in St Joseph's Parish Centre at 7.00 pm

Minutes of Previous Meeting/Chairman's Update
The meeting promised by Mr Steven Pickering, the Council's Deputy Executive Direct of Services, to discuss the revised proposals before they were made public did not materialise. Plus, we are still awaiting a reply to the Secretary's letter of 18th November in which she enclosed a copy of our "Option 9" proposals. The Chairman/Secretary will write to Mr Pickering again.

Car Park Scheme Consultation
Members reported that officers attending the Consultation on 30th November were unable to answer their questions. Following discussion it was agreed to seek clarification of the following points:
• Are double yellow lines in back lanes part of the scheme?
• How many hospital staff permits will be made available? (Cllr Martin in his West End News - Autumn 2009 says 400. Council officers at Consultation did not know.)
• If a resident doesn't have a car, can they apply for a permit for a family member?
• Is there a limit on the number of visitors' permits per household?
• How will parking restrictions affect Blue Badge holders?
• Are local businesses being adequately catered for in the proposals?
• At the moment residents of Colchester Terrace do not have a problem with parking, but the proposals will create an issue as half the terrace is designated a red area whilst across the road the residents are in a blue area. What are the Council's comments on this?

Paul Dixon stressed this was a consultation exercise, a start to getting a scheme in place which will solve the parking problems. It will run until 21 December. We need to write to the Council with our views.

Some other points raised by members:
• They do not agree with permits being made available to the hospital. They would like to see residents only parking.
• Residents should not be charged for having visitors.
• The proposed 2-hour limit for parking will do nothing to help those streets currently badly affected. As one car leaves, another will take its place, exactly as happens now.
• Allowing limited parking times, say 2 hours per day, to outsiders could help alleviate the problems felt in the worst affected streets.
• It was noted that problem with parked City taxis has not been so bad recently. Michael Essl suggested writing to Mr Humphreys, Chief Taxi Enforcement Officer at the Environment Department if necessary.

Following discussion it was agreed by the majority that the best way forward to solve the residents parking problems is to write to the Council agreeing with their Option 8 in principle but not in detail. We will offer our own counter-proposal, our Residents Option 9 (as reported in Minutes of 10 November 2009) as a solution. The Chairman will contact the Sunderland Echo for publicity.