Meeting:

Tuesday 3rd August, 7pm, St Joesphs Parish Centre. All welcome.

Appologies for the last minute update. The minutes of the July meeting are posted below.

There have been two meetings of the working group comprising of members of the residents association, local councillors and council officials and we are all working together with the aim of deveopling a parking management scheme which is acceptable to everyone concerned. A brief outline of these meetings is discussed in the minutes below and more detailed notes of these meetings will be posted in due course.


BARNES, PALLION & MILLFIELD RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
Minutes of Annual General Meeting held Tuesday 6th July at 7.0pm
In Enid Dagg Room, Ewesley Road Methodist Church

Election of Officers:
Following ballot it was agreed A Robinson continue as Chairperson, L Ranton as Vice-Chairperson, S Adamson as Secretary and E Lardner as Treasurer. K Wilkinson, B Smith and D Campbell received nominations for committee. All other present committee members were accepted as continued members.

Chairpersons Report/Sub Committee Meetings
Amanda reported on the previous workshop meetings with the Councillors and Transport representatives. At the meetings the councillors and traffic representatives agreed our proposals for a traffic management scheme was on the whole quite feasible. However, the last meeting was informed by Mr Newell that to cover costs of implementation of a traffic management scheme it may be necessary to charge for first residents only parking permits. It was estimated that the cost of posts at each end of the streets and zones would cost up to £5,000 per street. Also administration, maintenance and policing costs. The only alternative to this would be to allow the Hospital Trust up to 400 parking permits to be dispersed over the whole of the area affected, reducing their portion annually.
P Dixon stated that it would probably not be possible to work out costs until the take-up of permits. It would need at least 50% take-up of 2nd charged permits from residents to cover costs. Some streets would have no option but to apply for 2nd permits at £20 each, others with parking drives and yards could avoid paying. Mr Newell stated that when canvassing the streets with leaflet drops followed by knocking on doors the residents would be asked whether or not they would be willing to pay for 2nd permits. L Ranton stated it would have to be stressed to the residents that if the 2nd permit was not taken up everyone would have to pay for first permit. B Smith asked what the charge would be. A Robinson stated £20 per year was the figure proposed.

K Wilson stated that if the shortfall was approximately £7,000 and the council were charging the hospital £180 per permit, she suggested that only 40 hospital permits would provide enough revenue. Don’t need to allow the hospital 400 permits. The residents agreed that any permits given to the hospital would still cause stress to the streets nearest.

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P Dixon stated that the working group proposed any hospital permits would be issued to streets further outside the red zones. A Robinson stated no permits would be given for the streets immediately close to the hospital. The residents agreed this would not work because then those streets would be applying for residents only parking. The working group agreed that any scheme implemented for us would have to be able to be moved out immediately to the wider areas if necessary.
A Robinson showed the residents an A3 costing and assessment booklet put together by
K Heads – Transport.
S Adamson stated Mr Newell was still looking at options for costing and would still like to give the residents 1st permit free if possible.

M Peacock stated that if the council charged the hospital for permits to park in our streets then they were using us as a municipal car park. It was not the Council’s job to charge for non-residents to park in our streets. B Smith stated our residents paid their council tax and contributed to the costs of plans in other areas in Sunderland. Many people over a wide area of Sunderland use the hospital, they should be made to contribute towards the costs.
L Ranton stated that a local councillor agreed at the workshop meeting that the hospital’s previous plans for expansion should never have been passed as they had not provided adequate parking. She stated that if the hospital did have to have permits, they should be zoned appropriately.

J Lowther stated that if visitors and staff had to park in the outer blue zone, it would take them approximately twenty minutes to walk to the hospital. This is not unacceptable. The authorities were trying to say that 250 cars were staff and the rest were visitors. If that figure was right and permits were sold to the hospital they would get a guaranteed parking space whereas they can’t at the moment. P Dixon stated the hospital would not be willing to pay for parking in streets twenty minutes’ walk from work. The hospital is stating they could not function properly if they were not allowed to park in our streets. They are using emotional blackmail. The people of Sunderland used the hospital; they should pay for our parking scheme. S Adamson stated if the council were looking for an income of £10 per car to make scheme viable then they should add that to the council tax so all the people of Sunderland would be paying. It was pointed out that the next council tax budget would be in April 2011. The government may yet freeze council tax budgets.

The meeting discussed the income received from proposed 1hr no return bays in some wider residential end terraced streets. At a cost of £3,000 per metre there would not be enough income return in these streets. It would be viable in Wilson St and Kayll Road. The council thought the end terraced streets should be marked for disabled and off-loading only.

S Adamson stated that the workshop agreed to invite representatives from the local traders to discuss permits for them and also the Hospital to future meetings, after a basic scheme has been determined, in order to keep them informed and also to lessen any possible objections which would delay implementation.

When asked if the workshop meetings were proving productive, S Adamson stated that they were moving forward and a lot of information was provided. The council were hoping for at least a 75% in favour from the residents. To achieve this they were going to do a leaflet drop through all doors followed by a door-to-door canvassing giving people all the information necessary including how it would be financed and what restrictions the scheme would bring in, in order for them to give a decision. They would also impress upon the residents that if they did not agree to the scheme, the situation could only get worse. They agreed the previous consultations were not fully explained. If 75% in favour with an average of 50% per street for the scheme, then nobody could say they hadn’t been consulted and given all the facts. The whole idea is to lessen the potential objections that would delay implementation of the scheme. They could have gone ahead with the previous proposed scheme of November 09 but the objections received would have possibly delayed implementation indefinitely.
M Adamson asked who would decide the questions on the survey? The working group would decide the questions. D Campbell stated £350,000 was the estimate to set the scheme up. But it would need to be self-financing in the future. If the hospital were allowed permits then this would finance the scheme. When consulting the residents it will have to be explained to them that initially the first permit may be free but that doesn’t mean that charges won’t be introduced in the future. S Adamson stated that the council wanted this scheme to work as much as we do because any scheme for us would be a pilot for the whole of the city.
B Smith stated that other areas in the city did not have the problem seven days a week as we do. L Ranton introduced the idea of one way streets in the areas closest to the hospital to try and reduce some of the traffic chaos. The meeting agreed that could be put to the working group. The next working group meeting would be Tuesday 17th August at 5.0pm in St Joseph’s Parish Centre.


Correspondence
A Robinson had received a letter from Cllr P Watson agreeing that in order for the group to work efficiently only one representative from each council ward would be necessary. He did propose five councillors over the three wards. At the last meeting four councillors were present which was adequate. Cllr Dixon had written to Carol Harries, Hospital Trust complaining about the contractors cars and vans parking in the side streets adding to the parking problems. James Newell had written to Cllr Dixon stating he would instruct the civil enforcement officers to make additional patrols on Wilson St and issue penalty charge notices to vehicles obstructing “dropped” crossings. The situation regarding parking round the schools would hopefully be resolved when the parking management scheme was enforced.
L Ranton had received a reply from the Parliamentary Ombudsman in answer to our complaint about the Council and the Hospital in relation to the parking problems. Although they were sorry to hear about our problems they cannot get involved because as yet “we had not made a formal complaint to the Hospital Trust!” The Hospital Trust complaints procedure had to be gone through first in order to allow the Hospital to answer our complaints. Basically the Hospital were denying any complaints received about the parking issues. They had only received individual “enquiries” from the residents. The meeting agreed a letter be sent to the Ombudsman including copies of all the letters sent by us to the Hospital. Also a further letter be sent to Mr Ken Bremner, Chief Executive of the Hospital Trust again stating our complaint. K Wilson suggested we write also to Mr John Anderson, Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Hospital Trust.

Blog Update
K Wilson reported receiving two irate e-mails from non-residents complaining of damage to their cars while parked near the hospital. The meeting agreed it would be silly of us to leave our polite parking notices on cars and then damage them. It was not something that the overall majority of our residents would do.

Any Other Business
A Jackson pointed out the problems caused by the new car and van rental business set up in Whitehall Tce, parking vans in local back lanes and Bexley St, on the kerb right in front of residents’ windows. S Rackstraw stated she had phoned the Planning Dept and there had been no application from Mr Finn (the business owner) for change of use for the premises.

B Smith brought up the on-going issue of no right turn into Ormonde Street down to Chatsworth St. This was still causing problems. The Council had promised they would review the situation but so far have not been seen to do anything. Big lorries had been seen ignoring the signs and trying to negotiate right turns into Ormonde St. L Ranton stated she had explained to Mr Newell that following a successful outcome for the parking management scheme there would still be other issues that the residents intended to raise with the council.
B Smith also stated she had been approached by many residents who wished the Association to take up other issues as well as the car parking. One issue was the fact that one of the crossings on Chester Rd/Ormonde St had been removed. This meant that some residents had to negotiate three sets of crossings just to get from St Gabriel’s to Ormonde Street. The no right turn into Ormonde St down to Chatsworth St needed addressing as drivers were using Ewesley Road and the ABC streets to avoid the lights. Also the dangerous situation caused by the two sets of pedestrian lights on Chester Rd outside the hospital entrance. This was very confusing to pedestrians and drivers alike. M Adamson reported that the Bus Company were doing their own survey of the traffic on Chester Road as they too were not happy with the situation. A Robinson agreed to request a meeting with Mr Newell. The meeting agreed that letters should be sent to try and address these issues.

D Campbell reported that his wife had recently returned to work in the hospital following maternity leave to be told that one of the staff who was pregnant had reported finding a note on her car threatening violence if she continued to park in St Gabriel’s. The management had stated that if any more notes were received by any staff they would involve the police and seek legal action. A Robinson stated she had sent an e-mail to the Echo stating the Residents Association would never condone any such action or threats. On the whole the residents were sympathetic with the plight of visitors trying to park to attend the hospital. It was the
Hospitals fault that they were having problems. The meeting agreed that although frustration about the parking situation was understandable any threat of violence by any individual resident was not in the best interests of all parties. E Lardner stated there had been acid attacks and scratching of paintwork on cars including residents in St Gabriel’s recently. Each time the police had been involved. The meeting agreed that our condemnation of any such action be put on the blog. B Smith pointed out the written and verbal abuse went both ways. There have been many occasions when the residents have been on the receiving end of abuse by hospital staff and visitors. K Wilson reported one resident had had his concrete gate post demolished by a non-resident car trying to do a three point turn in the overcrowded street. The car driver did not stay to accept blame or apologise. Fortunately the registration was noted and the police informed. Members at the meeting reported occasions when the residents have helped hospital staff to change car tyres and on one occasion even helped the staff who could not remember where they had parked their car!

The meeting closed at 8.15pm
Next meeting to be held in St Joseph’s Parish Centre on Tuesday 3rd August at 7.0pm.