Meeting: Tuesday 1st June

The next Barnes, Pallion and Millfield meeting will be held on Tuesday 1st June at 7pm at St Josephs Parish Centre.

Members of the committee recently met with local councillors from each of the three wards along with council officers involved in traffic and parking in the city. Discussions focused on possible solutions to the parking situation in the area and a working group involving the residents, Councillors and council officials is to be formed in the hope that a pilot scheme can be established which is acceptable to people living the area. This will be the main item on the agenda for the meeting on Tuesday - all are welcome.


A summary of the last BPMRA meeting held on 4th May follows:

Amanda opened the meeting by asking the members to agree the previous minutes as a true record. This was agreed. She then went on to inform the meeting about correspondence sent and received. The National Health Ombudsman had replied to our letter requesting his involvement in order to press the Hospital Trust and the Council to get together to find a speedy sensible solution to our parking problems. He informed us that he would be contacting the other parties involved. Mr Stephen Pickering had replied to our letter agreeing to a further meeting. A letter had been sent to Mr K Bremner, Chief Executive Hospital Trust expressing our disappointment and anger at his patronising reply to our previous letter. The Police had still not replied to our letters requesting a meeting. According to the Citizens Charter they should have replied within 15 working days. A further letter to be sent. The Police had promised they would answer all calls regarding inconsiderate and dangerous parking, but when they do turn up they say they can do nothing. Many of the cars parked are blatantly against the traffic laws but the Police are allowing them to park on pavements and junctions so as not to restrict the extra traffic caused by the new traffic light system on Chester Road. This is not good enough.

The meeting expressed its anger at the candidates for election all jumping on the Hospital parking bandwagon in order to attract votes. Where have they been when we needed their support? The meeting agreed that following the forthcoming election, the winning candidates should be contacted inviting them to meet with us.

The meeting expressed their disappointment at the lack of support from the residents on Chester Road which were badly affected and also the businesses in the area. We need their input to continue our campaign. Following discussion the meeting agreed that the recent Council consultation had covered too wide an area and included residents not yet affected. We would do our own consultation limited to the streets affected only. We would put to the residents a scheme similar to that operated in the Freeman Hospital area. Susan and Morris had been to the Freeman area and met with the residents. They too had suffered our problems but since the residents only parking scheme had been introduced they were happy. Residents only parking was restricted to 1hr in the morning and 1hr in the afternoon, but this was enough to deter the hospital staff from parking all day. Staff had tried to bribe the residents into letting them park for a price but to no avail. Also, since this scheme had been introduced, the Hospital had built a six storey car park operated by a private car parking firm.

Following discussion the meeting was in agreement that the residents should not be asked to pay for any scheme as the situation was not their fault. In other authorities the local Hospital had been asked to contribute towards the cost of financing similar schemes. Also ticket parking meters on the Hospital side of Kayll Road and one side of Wilson St would provide monies to finance administration. The meeting also agreed no consideration to be given to Hospital staff parking permits. The meeting agreed a sub-committee to be formed to produce a pro-forma consultation leaflet stating our simple, sensible parking scheme - to be delivered to each resident in the streets most affected for their comments – these to be collected within a few days. We can then present the Council with our recommendations. The meeting agreed to impress upon the residents how the value of their houses had deteriorated. Publicity through the local newspapers would be of help.

The meeting went on to discuss other avenues of protest including parking our own cars on the streets and blocking access to Hospital staff and protests at council meetings.
Elizabeth informed the meeting that our Annual General Meeting was due. The meeting agreed to discuss it at the next meeting.
The meeting discussed asking the council to help improve our streets by providing flowers boxes and baskets as they had done in other areas of the city.

The meeting closed at 8.30pm
Next meeting to be on Tuesday 1st June at 7.0pm St Josephs Parish Centre.