Meeting: Tuesday 4th May

Minutes of the last meeting are posted below and include a discussion on the results of the consultation on residentas parking schemes. Briefly, the Council have rejected the plans as the result of the consultation was too close with 446 voting for the proposals and 463 against.

Next meeting is Tuesday 4th May at 7pm

Minutes of Meeting 6th April 2010
Amanda opened the meeting by going quickly going through the minutes of the previous meeting. Following the residents’ concerns expressed at the last meeting, a letter was sent to Mr Stephen Pickering asking for clarification on the situation regarding Blue Badge Holders rights to park in Resident Only areas, what results had been gained from the last Public Consultation, and were the council any further forward in their plans to form a management committee to look at City Wide park and ride implementation. As yet no reply had been received despite the fact that the results of the consultation had been announced at a recent council meeting. Apparently, because the residents had voted 446 for and 463 against, the council did not feel able to go ahead with residents only parking. The announcement was only made public because the conservative councillor had pressed for the results. Would the results have ever been made public otherwise? The meeting agreed that the majority of residents against the consultation had done so because the proposal put to them was both complicated and costly. Also the council had canvassed too large an area, including those residents not yet affected. This had been done deliberately in order to get a negative response.

A letter had been received rather belatedly and with apologies for the delay from Mr Ken Bremner, Chief Executive of Sunderland Hospital Trust. In the letter he stated that the new extension was more priority than a multi-storey car park which would ease the residents stress. His letter was quite patronising and offered no practical intention by the Trust to find a solution to our parking problems. The meeting agreed that both the Council and Hospital Trust had no intention of helping us and were happy to let us continue to suffer. A three line letter had been received from Cllr Paul Watson, Leader of the Council stating the bus stop on Chester Road had been reinstated. No explanation or response to the issues of through traffic, Hospital parking or the state of our pavements and roads put to him in our previous letter was mentioned.

The meeting discussed our future strategies. These included inviting the councillors for our areas to attend a meeting with us and a possible further public meeting. Blockading the side streets and campaigning at council meetings were also options discussed. P Dixon advised the residents to put forward their own sensible Residents Only Parking strategy that would meet the needs of the local residents and businesses. In order to do this it was necessary to survey other successful Residents Only schemes, such as that at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle which covered a large area. Middlesbrough’s Residents’ Only parking scheme was free to residents. How was this funded? M and S Adamson offered to survey the Freeman Hospital residents and businesses for their opinions on how their system was working. The meeting agreed that any strategy should be applied to only those streets immediately affected by the parking problems. Then we could put together a simpler, workable strategy and put this to the residents along with a publicity campaign involving the local newspapers. If they agreed, then the Council could not ignore the majority decision. Once a sensible Residents’ Only parking strategy was in place, then as staff and visitors started to park further out, the system could be expanded. The meeting agreed that the present heavy traffic in the side streets of Sunderland, city wide could not be beneficial to the health and well being of Sunderland residents. It was a well known fact that traffic pollution was a contributory factor in the rising numbers of childhood asthma being diagnosed. The meeting also discussed the fact that our house prices had fallen and this had nothing to do with the recession. Potential buyers would be put off by the amount of cars parked and volume of traffic.

The meeting agreed that Amanda should contact the Echo expressing the Association’s anger and disappointment with the way the Council have handled the “consultation”.
The meeting noted that the new Pallion Health Centre would be bigger but would include room for a further thirty cars on-site. Even so, this would add to the residents’ problems as all cars on the new Health Centre site would be for their staff and patients only. Hospital staff would no longer be able to park there.
B Smith pointed out that the council had promised some time ago to do a further traffic survey in the area but nothing more had been heard.

Hanging Basket Project
Elizabeth reported that she had tried to contact SEED but so far to no avail. The meeting agreed with her that it was probably too late in the season to go ahead with the project this year but would try again next year. Elizabeth stated it was still possible to buy ready-made baskets from the local council nursery and sell them on to the residents at a subsidised price.

Any Other Business
The meeting was informed that the Hospital were raising the parking charges on-site.
Revised bigger polite car notices had been printed for use by the residents.

The meeting closed at 8.15pm
The next meeting to be held Tuesday 4th May at 7.0pm. Venue to be arranged.