It's been a very busy winter for Anthony and I, and I regret that blogging has slipped a bit - well, a lot! We've had three very major issues to deal with (alongside the usual host of smaller ones), so it's zapped the spare time that I usually use to keep people in touch. Anyway, I'll be putting up a series of blog posts over the coming week. First up is residents parking...As covered previously, there was a consultation on the possibility of installing a residents parking scheme in the southern part of Cotham that ran from October to early December last year. Just before Christmas, Anthony (in pic showing nice clear streets within the Kingsdown zone) and I had a chance to look at the over 600 responses that came back into the Council.
The main thing that we drew from that consultation was that a significant majority of local people supported the plans, either as they stood or with relatively minor amendments. My own position over the last four years that this has been on the political agenda has been that I am broadly positive about the concept of residents parking, but only where it has support from the community. It was pretty clear that this is now indeed the case in the area of Cotham south of the railway line, with this consultation being performed in a much more professional way than the one in Kingsdown a couple of years ago.
As a result, the decision has been taken to proceed with the next stage of the process. This will see revised plans worked up as a result of the comments from local people and these should be available shortly - probably early February. These involve changing the allocation of different types of parking bays, moving some of the lines around and altering the boundary slightly to include the section of Hampton Park south of the railway line. We have also asked the officers to look again at the area around Redland Station to see whether this could be improved - they are also looking more generally at how commuter parking in this area might be managed.
There will then be a second consultation period, which is the one required in law. This will probably occur in March/April and will focus on the mechanics of the how the scheme works, especially with respect to the location of parking bays and so on. There will then be a final decision to implement the scheme taken around June. If this is a green light, the scheme will start to appear on the ground over the summer months, with the restrictions coming into force in October 2012. It is not yet a 'done deal' and there will still be several opportunities for residents (and councillors!) to have an input.
The Council also surveyed an area just north of the proposed zone. This was hampered by a cock-up by the printers, so the leaflets were late going out. Nevertheless, over 100 comments did come back. These did not express a single clear view about the proposed residents parking scheme, although most people were concerned about the possible knock-on effects of displaced commuter parking on their own streets.
Drawing on the comments, Anthony and I have worked to get two specific concessions from the Council officers. The first is that these areas will get their own dedicated traffic wardens to help to stop illegal and unsafe parking. One of the early effects of the Kingsdown zone was that some commuters took to parking in ridiculous places until there was a clampdown. This time, we start with off clamping down on this from the outset.
The second is that we will have an assurance in place that the surrounding areas will be consulted about whether they would like to be in a residents parking scheme within one year of the start of the south Cotham scheme. This means that if these areas do suffer badly from displacement, as many residents fear, they will have the chance to see a solution in place in a reasonable timescale.
So that's where we're at - revised road plans should be out shortly and I'll post them up here as soon as I have them.
P.S. Some eagle-eyed residents have spotted notification signs on lampposts throughout Cotham. These are written in an (sadly necessary) incomprehensible legal language, so it's not immediately clear what they are about. They lay out the final legal consultation for the Cotham Parking Review - the separate exercise to the residents parking scheme which is mainly about protecting junctions with yellow lines. These plans have been around for a while now, but it's finally our turn in the queue. If all goes to plan, the lines should start to appear in March/April.
10 comments:
Any news on the amended plans?
Anon - Not yet. There are some specific consultation exercises going on around Cotham Hill and Redland station which are going to slow things down a little.
Still no news on this. What is going on with these proposals?
Lots of nice empty parking spaces in Kingsdown these days, what with all that parking being displaced into Cotham... Of course you are just moving the problem around, collecting permit and parking fees, and not really solving anything.
Seems to have all ground to a halt, so much for amended plans in early Feb!!
Anon - coming very soon. So much transport stuff happening at the moment that they got a little delayed in other things. I'm told they should appear in the next couple of weeks.
cpz is not good in many many ways.. to start with it is going to be another hole in the pocket for anyone on a low income. I oppose these plans among everyone that I have spoken too. I live in cotham and am very suprised that the majority support cpz. I would like to see any results of the postal ballot and what percentage of residents submitted their forms if you could help that would be grand.. The empty streets in kingsdown is a disgrace.. just admit that it is a money making scheme or does our council tax get admended since we will be paying another form of a covert tax.
Anon - I'm not going to admit something that isn't true! As I've laid out elsewhere here and as was explained in the consultation document, the scheme is budgeted to break even and there is 'open book' accounting so that any resident can go and see this for themselves. The scheme costs about £500k to put in and this is recouped over a number of years, alongside the cost of enforcement. This non-profit and open approach were two of my 'red lines'.
People on benefits (and those with low emission cars) don't pay for their permits, so that covers those on the lowest incomes. Those with higher incomes are paying about 8p per day.
No formal tally of consultation responses was made as many were very complex and there was no 'vote' as such. The responses were weighed up and broadly allocated. Across the area, the support was roughly two to one in favour and there was only not a majority in two streets. From memory, around 600 responses were received from around 2,000 households. This is a pretty good rate of return when you consider that many households don't have cars.
I'm sorry that you are not happy with the outcome, but that's local decision-making. It does sound like you have some misapprehensions about the scheme, so it might be worth looking at the explanation online again.
You may also find that you change your mind. When the Kingsdown scheme was installed, the vote (and one was taken there) was 50.1:49.9 in favour. A year later it was 90:10 - many people simply changed their minds once they saw it working.
As a new resident (I moved to Aberdeen Rd in early September from St Pauls - another RPZ area I should probably add).
I was initially pleased to find out that residents permits were coming into being as I was finding difficulty in getting parked in the evening after work - often having to park ~5 minutes walk away (not a big deal but not pleasant in the wet weather of late). But now I am beginning to see the zones being painted and it is clear that this will only exasperate the already dire situation:
The zones do not mark out individual bays for cars to park (so there will still be the problem of cars parked with just-not-enough-space to park another car in between them);
double yellow lines are parked around all corners and are long on each side meaning that there is less space to legally park;
in some places there are car-width areas of double-yellows where there seems to be no need for them other than to possibly allow cars to pass (even though there is plenty of room for this on the road);
and (again) long double yellows across the front of peoples driveways - many of these driveways can fit 2-3 cars when very often the household only has 1!
However I am sure, after the initial cost of painting and signage, Bristol City Council will be making a pretty penny out of the £30/£80/£200 a year SOME residents will pay. Others will simply do what they have had to do anyway - park further away outside of this new zone. Believe me more and more people will be doing this and the lovely residents of the surrounding area (who up until now have had little trouble getting parked) will be faced with the problem.
I am furious, and am considering starting a community group to oppose this
Ronan - I'll try to answer your queries and observations:
1. The rules for residents parking schemes are laid out nationally and they are pretty prescriptive. Much of what you observe is a feature of how these schemes work wherever they are.
2. The double yellow lines around the corners is not actually anything to do with residents parking, but an earlier project called the Cotham Parking Review - if you search on the blog you'll find details. The lines have just gone down at the same time to save money. In nearly all instances, the lines merely follow the Highway Code, so there are is no loss of 'legal' parking - only unsafe parking. In a couple of instances, 'reservoirs' have been put in to add traffic flow on narrow streets with a history of complaints - effectively these are passing spaces. On the other side of the equation, some unneeded old yellow lines were removed to create new spaces, so the overall effect was about neutral.
3. Yellow lines across driveways and garages was an option given to people during the consultation. Where they've opted for lines, there is a minimum 'overhang' to allow them easy access in and out. There may be scope to roll some of this back in due course if it's not needed and this was done in Kingsdown (see below), creating new spaces over time.
4. As is covered elsewhere on this blog, the scheme is income-neutral for the Council. The permits pay for the cost of the installation (around £500k) and the cost of ongoing enforcement and maintenance. There is 'open book' accounting so that residents can see the money in and out and any 'accidental' surplus is ringfenced for sustainable travel initiatives. So, no pretty pennies.
More generally, the scheme is very closely modelled on the one that went in across Kingsdown nearly two years ago. This is now massively popular with local people who find it easier to park and more pleasant to walk and cycle. I understand that you have reservations, but the experience of the adjacent area is very positive. And, fundamentally, it's only going in because the majority of people wanted it when asked.
The important thing to remember, also, is that there is a six month review period to iron out problems and issues. If things genuinely get worse on your street, then moves will be made to sort it out. If you really can't stand it after two years, then there is a consultation then when people have the option to see the whole thing removed. A community group to help the Council to understand any pressure points during operation would be very helpful indeed.
Happy to continue the dialogue by e-mail if you want - if there is a specific issue on Aberdeen Road that you think isn't going to work, it's useful to know sooner rather than later and then I can have it monitored.
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