I have attended both of the drop-in sessions in Penrhyn Hall. Both sessions I would best describe as shambolic.
The 1st session had 2 council officers but no councillors. Today's session had 3 councillors + an extra council officer who, I guess, attended due to the strength of feeling expressed by members of the public at the 1st meeting.
Apart from expressing my own concerns I spent a lot of time listening to other residents views (I particularly found the views of the pensioners concerning as they feel trapped).
Residents from different roads had different issues but there were some consistent messages.
1. Parking is a problem in the area particularly after 7:00 at night.
2. The parking situation has worsened since the introduction of the LP & WA zones.
3. There is inadequate parking space for the residents in the area.
4. Introduction of a CPZ would not resolve the issues.
5. Residents are frightened to go out in their cars at night as they will not be able to park on their return.
6. Costs for permits would reduce family and friends visiting.
My opinion is that neither the councillors or council officers could reassure residents on these questions. All they keep saying is fill in your survey, which I fully agree with, but I feel there are a lot more questions than just whether we want a CPZ or not.
On a slightly different note, on the way to and from these sessions I noticed how many available spaces are available before 7:00 at night.
The more worrying thing that I noticed was a number of vehicles parked in the proposed zone that had expired permits from surrounding CPZ's. This is the displaced parking caused by the council's previously introduced CPZ's and it is getting worse as these drivers are now not willing to pay to park in their own zones.
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Hello all, Andrea here from the Wmorrisparking blog group. I'm sorry you are all having so many problems but not surprised. My blog is linked in to the right here as William Morris Blog and many of your answers are there.
ReplyDeleteNotably - we suggested the option of an evening "slot" as an option on the consultations. We were ignored. We asked from the second we found out about this for them to rectify the problems in the existing zones BEFORE trying to set up another huge zone. Winns Ave voted convincingly AGAINST being in a zone, but they included us anyway and in teh LP section gave us the least popular options in terms of hours and days. Diana Road voted for a zone from 8:30am-9pm 6 days a week. Instead of including them in teh WA zone (6 days a week) they made them 7 days too. Their decisions were unforgivable and they have admitted that they have "made mistakes".
An email I have and am happy to forward states -from Councillor Belam himself - that he "went against his usual policy of fairness" and promoted this consultation above 18 others in the queue. There was no need to do the 3 zone consultations at once, they could have altered the LP and WA zones, seen how that affected everyone else and then - in fair turn, consulted the rest of the area. They are doing it to confuse and cause fear. They have no shame.
Do track back through the posts on our blog to see the history. Get together, get active and get on at the Council and if you can get the press involved,
Best wishes,
Andrea