Residents Parking summary

Over the last few weeks, I've had a number of e-mail and letters from Cotham residents as a result of a flyer delivered in the ward by the Keep Parking Free campaign. Their leaflet, as you might expect, presents a one sided picture of the issue of residents' parking. I don't agree with their overall position that residents' parking zones are a bad idea in the round in all circumstances.

I do, however, agree with them that Labour's consultation process has been deeply flawed. The Free Parking folks would argue that it was biased in favour of adopting a scheme. My view is that it had a polarising bias - it has galvanised opinion as either being for or against, which makes constructive dialogue more difficult and is in danger of setting neighbours against each other.

The purpose of this post is to provide a quick digest of my various posts on the topic and to make the consultation report more easily available for residents - rather than having to trawl through the Council website for it.

My posting in July 2008
My posting in August 2008 (including a video clip of my statement to Council)
My posting in November 2008

The Council's Consultation Report (this is a large file and will take a while to load)

For the purposes of clarity, my position is that I am not opposed to Residents' Parking Zones as a concept. I have seen them work well in other cities where they have helped to raise the quality of life for residents. However, I am opposed to the imposition of Zones where residents do not want them - including on the basis of a flawed consultation.

Focus newsletter published

The latest edition of Cotham Focus has been published and is currently being delivered across the ward. The lead story is an update about Residents Parking Zones. The latest news is that there will be a 'call in' meeting on the 5th January to decide whether the Labour Cabinet's decision to press ahead with two pilots (ignoring the comments made by me and others) should be reviewed. I will be making yet another public statement on this in due course, but my focus is that in order to proceed, three things needed to be sorted :

1. Residents of Cotham living adjacent to the proposed Kingsdown pilot zone need to be resurveyed, not least as they may now wish to opt-in.
2. There needs to be clarity about what 'pilot' means. Pilot projects should have clear measures of success, a periodic review and an exit strategy. The RPZ pilots have none of these in place.
3. There needs to be attention given to improved parking enforcement in the areas adjacent to any zones to limit or eliminate any knock-on effect. This needs to be factored into the plans and costings.

These points (along with some more minor ones) formed the basis of my statement to Cabinet last month and need to be resolved for me to be happy with things going forwards.

Keeping footpaths clear

After having it raised by a local resident who is blind, I have been working with Council officers to get trees and hedges cut back in Cotham where they are blocking footpaths and pavements. She was having difficulty, getting branches in her face and having to walk in the road. This is clearly not safe for anyone!

I have started off with those routes which are regularly used by the resident who contacted me (like the footpath off Chapel Green Lane in the photo adjacent), but it would be useful to hear about any other problem patches. It is the responsibility of the householder to make sure their plants don't cause an obstruction. I discovered this in my old house in Horfield when I got a grumpy letter from the Council. I was out with my hedge clippers about ten minutes later after they threaten to bill me for doing it themselves!

Sustainable Travel - working towards walking

The next meeting of the Sustainable Travel Select Committee, which I am chairing, will be focusing on how we can support walking in the city. Unlike other large cities, Bristol currently does not have a fully worked-up walking strategy and the purpose of the meeting is to begin discussions about what this might look like.

A 'walking strategy' still strikes me both as quite a funny idea (surely it's obvious!) and as quite a tedious one (a strategy document - yawn!). However, this is all about how the city seeds walking as a foremost form of travel and should cover things like who has priority on the streets, how road safety is dealt with, what public toilets are available (important particularly for older people) and what routes are easy to walk (i.e. can you cross main roads safely).

We will also be looking at the pros and cons of 20mph zones in residential areas. Lib Dem Portsmouth and Hull have both recently introduced 20mph zones in large parts of the city. This has many advantages, including reducing road accidents and air pollution, as well as improving confidence for walkers and cyclists.

As I have mentioned before, the Committee meetings are open to the public and webcast through the Council's website. There is also an opportunity for the public to contribute ideas through the 'public forum' part of the meeting - either in writing or in person. I am also very happy to act as a conduit for new ideas too. Also, there is now an online discussion forum on the topic of walking..

The meeting is at 4.30pm on Wednesday 17th December in the Council House (probably committee room 15).

Mobile mast on Redland Hill

As previous predicted, Orange have followed through with their application to put a 12 metre high mobile phone mast and cabinet at the junction of Redland Hill and Durdham Park. I responded to their pre-application letter telling them that it was a bad idea and that I would oppose it, but I didn't even get an acknowledgement!

The details of the application are on the Council website and I am encouraging residents and other councillors to oppose it. It will be an eyesore in a Conservation Area on the edge of The Downs - bigger than most of the surrounding trees and generally unwelcome in an historic area. Planners have stopped the new Redland House from having all sorts of unsightly poles and aerials on top after the redevelopment, so they shouldn't just be pushing them 100 metres down the road!

You can lodge an objection by e-mailing north.planning@bristol.gov.uk or there are other methods covered on the Council website under 'Planning'.

P.S. A resident has been in touch asking about the health risks associated with mobile phone masts. The government's diktat (paras 29 to 31) on masts is specific that councils are not allowed to refuse masts on the basis of health concerns, provided the kit meets national guidelines. I, and my Lib Dem colleagues in parliament, continue to have concerns about the long-term effects and believe that council's should have power to restrict masts in certain circumstances.

A car free city!

I've just got back from a quick weekend in Venice (and yes, I did sanctimoniously and self-satisfiedly offset my carbon). One of the things that strikes you immediately about the city is that it is almost entirely car-free (and cycle-free). Of course, there are reasons for this and the canals are plenty busy with traffic, but it was such a nice experience to be able to walk around without the noise, danger and pollution. It's really useful to have reminders like this that there are others ways of running a society than the one we have.

P.S. When I took the above picture of St Mark's Square on Saturday, it wasn't under five feet of water!