Parking around the Manor School

After a long delay, the proposed new parking restrictions around the Manor School in Coalpit Heath have now been formally advertised.

There are actually two consultations because two Traffic Regulation Orders are needed - one for the yellow zig zag lines, which will be shortened so that they are enforceable, and one for double yellow lines. Hopefully these will help prevent the dangerous parking that local people have often suffered at school times. You have until 22nd September to have you say.

Urgent consultation - Yate Town Centre Waiting Restrictions

South Glos Council is consulting on waiting restrictions in the streets around the Town Centre and about reducing the Leisure Centre and Kennedy Way car parks from 12 to 4 hours maximum stay.

You can find the full details and a plan of the proposals here - you need to give your views by THIS FRIDAY, 18 AUGUST.

STOP PRESS - They have extended the consultation until 1 September because some of the consultation letters were returned marked undeliverable.

The roads affected are: Broadway, Church Road, Cleeve Road, Elmgrove Crescent, Firgrove Crescent, Gleneagles, Highway, Home Orchard, Kennedy Way, Lawns Road, Link Road, Melrose Avenue, Orchard Close, Painswick Drive, Ridgeway, Stanshawe Crescent, Station Road, Sundridge Park, Swan Field, The Glen, Tree Leaze, Turnpike Close, Walnut Avenue, Westerleigh Road.

Whatever your views about this scheme, it's yet another example of inadequate consultation by South Glos:

• Virtually no publicity for a significant consultation
• Only 3 weeks to comment
• Over the summer holidays, so many people will only have a week to respond
• Only accepting comments online - what about people who don't have internet?

What's the point of consultations if you don't do them properly?

Let's Get Yate Moving

What's more, Yate has now got to a size where it needs a decent size "two-way" Park and Ride site, with all-day parking for people travelling to Bristol and the North Fringe, plus parking for people working or spending long times in the Shopping Centre and the public buildings nearby.

The Liberal Democrat Focus Team has been running a 'Let's Get Yate Moving' campaign since 2014 to ensure that the Yate and Chipping Sodbury area gets the transport infrastructure it desperately needs. If you support this too, please do sign our petition at www.southgloslibdems.org.uk/letsgetyatemoving and pass it on to friends and family members.

Formal consultation on 20mph limits in Coalpit Heath

You have until 22nd September to have your say on the proposed 20mph limits on:

Burcombe Close, Coalville Road, Dormer Close, Heath Gardens, part of Henfield Road, Rathbone Close, Rose Oak Drive, Rose Oak Lane, Roundways, South View Crescent, South View Rise, Station Road, St. Annes Drive, Watters Close, Woodside Road.

This is the formal advertisement of the draft order, the next step in the legal process for changing a speed limit. You can view the proposals and comment here.

Safety on the roads around the Manor School

Last year South Glos carried out an informal consultation on introducing a 20mph limit on the residential roads to the east of Badminton Road, Coalpit Heath.

Based on the results of that consultation, officers decided to go ahead with the formal advertisement. That was supposed to happen in May but it was delayed and will now run from 29th August to 22nd September.

The formal advertisement of the waiting restrictions around the school, which is a separate piece of work, has been delayed by the departure of the official dealing with it. We'll let you know when it's time to have your say.

Have your say on Keep Clear Markings

South Glos is asking for your views on a proposed scheme to improve the safety outside of Frampton Cotterell C of E School and make the advisory School keep clear markings mandatory. You can find out more and have your say here.

Lorries outside Sainsbury's - a reminder

Back in January Claire Young asked people to send her details of any problems caused by lorries parking on Badminton Road outside the new Sainsbury's store in Coalpit Heath. Thank you to those who have sent in emails, sometimes with photos and videos attached. It's important that highways officers understand what is happening to help them decide what, if any, action is needed.

Do keep on sending Claire your reports. It would be helpful if you could say if the lorry was unloading/loading or just parked so the driver could buy things from the store, but the most important thing is to know when it is happening.

Parking problems outside Sainsbury's

Before Christmas residents reported a lorry parked on Badminton Road outside Sainsbury's unloading, instead of in the designated lorry bay. This made it difficult to exit the car park safely because of reduced visibility.

Claire Young raised this with both the council and the local beat manager. PC Simmons talked to the store manager, who in turn made the drivers aware of the problem. He trusts there will be no further problems from his side, however he has expressed a concern that drivers who may be customers rather than suppliers may park in the same location.

Council officers confirmed that they secured a commitment from the Sainsbury’s developer to fund a permanent TRO if parking issues developed on Badminton Road as a result of the development. However, the original expectation was that the problem would be with customers parking on Badminton Road either for convenience or because the car park was full, which could be addressed by the introduction of double yellow lines. The incident reported involved a vehicle unloading, which yellow lines would not legally prevent. That could only be done by introducing a loading/unloading ban during the store opening hours. The council could promote such a ban but it could impact on local residents.

The first step is to see whether this is a regular occurrence or a rarity. To help with that, if you see an incident, please report it to Claire so she can put together an incident log for the council. It would be helpful if you could also say if the lorry was unloading/loading or just parked, but the most important thing is to know when lorries are parking on Badminton Road near the store.

Have your say on 20mph on schools near Manor School

In November last year Claire Young attended the committee responsible for transport to present the findings of her survey on speed limits on the roads around the Manor School.

The council is now consulting on proposals to introduce 20mph speed limits on the following roads: Burcombe Close, Coalville Road, Dormer Close, Heath Gardens, Henfield Road, Rathbone Close, Rose Oak Drive, Rose Oak Lane, Roundways, South View Crescent, South View Rise, St Anne’s Drive, Station Road, Watters Close and Woodside Road.

You can view the proposals and comment online until 9th October.

Have your say on review of Keep Clear markings outside local schools

South Glos Council has just started a consultation on making changes to the Keep Clear markings outside some of our local schools:

https://consultations.southglos.gov.uk/consult.ti/SKCmarkingsFromeVale

In our area both the Manor School and Watermore Primary School are included. You have until 24th July to have your say.

Road safety around the Manor School - the latest

You may have seen the black wires across a number of roads around the Manor School. These are recording the speed and volume of traffic. Eventually, it’s hoped that all schools in South Gloucestershire will have 20mph limits around them, but it’s not possible to do them all straight away. The data from this monitoring, along with that for other schools, will be one of the criteria that will be looked at when deciding which schools to do first.

The officer responsible for the monitoring has seen the results of the survey Claire carried out last year to find out people's views on introducing 20mph limits. He said that it would also help the case for doing a school sooner rather than later if it was minuted as a priority by the local Area Forum. The Frome Vale Area Forum meets at 7pm on Thursday 5th March in Shireway Community Centre and members of the public are very welcome to speak. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more.

The council has agreed to take the necessary steps to enable the parking enforcement camera car to be used at the Manor School. Being able to demonstrate the local concern through your comments was very helpful in persuading officers that it should be added to the current programme of schools, rather than waiting for a future year. At an on-site meeting, officers explained it will involve making changes to the markings on the road to meet modern regulations. There will be a consultation on this.

Latest on parking problems

As we reported last month, parking continues to be a problem on some of our local roads.

School run parking

Although the 3 strikes scheme recently introduced by PCSO Andy Pound has been positive, some residents expressed concern that there wasn’t sufficient police presence to support it fully, as only the police can issue tickets. On Friday local councillor Claire Young attended a meeting at the school with the headteacher, governors, residents and PC Finbar Simmons. During the meeting, PC Simmons committed to giving the issue extra attention, and at last night's Safer Stronger Community Group meeting it was selected as a priority, which will help him argue for prioritising it over other work.

South Gloucestershire Council now has a parking enforcement camera car and while Claire was presenting the results of her survey to the committee on 12th November she also asked for the necessary steps to be taken to enable it to be used at the Manor School. At Friday’s meeting, she agreed to arrange an on-site meeting with the police and a highways officer to discuss this further and that is being done.

As well as enforcement, it’s also important to try to reduce the number of people driving to school. Claire has spoken to the Road Safety Officer at South Glos and she has now sent the headteacher details of a new scheme, "Five Minute Walking Zones", to promote children walking at least part of the way to school.

Other parking concerns

School run parking isn't the only concern for local residents, something Claire raised at last night's Safer Stronger Group meeting. Following concerns from residents, Claire wrote to both the football club and Fitquest asking them to remind their members to park considerately. Both responded positively - the football club are putting it on their next agenda and Fitquest have assured her that they remind their users every session and do spot checks.

In Claire's survey, people also expressed concern about people parking too close to certain junctions and Claire took this up with officers. White lines were introduced at the junctions off Roundways following a previous meeting she had on-site with highways officers. They are now proposing similar advisory keep clear lines at the junctions of Heath Gardens/Henfield Road and Station Road/The Brake. Although they are only advisory, the fact that someone is parked on them does help the police build a case for issuing a ticket for obstruction.

At last night's meeting, PC Finbar Simmons explained how the police approach parking problems. They need to be able to build a case that will stand up in court if the ticket is challenged. An obstruction has to be more than an inconvenience and courts will take into account how long it lasts, its nature, extent and purpose. Being prevented from leaving your driveway is an obstruction, but being temporarily blocked from entering isn't because you could park your vehicle elsewhere. With pavement parking, he will look to see if you can get a double buggy through. If there is an element of danger officers are more likely to be successful at court. If you are in any doubt, he advised you to call the police using the 101 number.

Healthwatch issues report on Southmead Hospital

Healthwatch, the consumer group concentrating on health and social care, has been consulting patients and the public about their experiences at Southmead Hospital - their report is available here.

North Bristol NHS Trust has responded in fairly general terms - for example, they say "Parking is an area of continuous improvement for us whilst waiting for the completion of the phase 2 development in spring 2016"

The report concentrates on matters within the hospital, so it doesn't really touch on issues such as bus services. Please let Pat Hockey pat.hockey@southglos.gov.uk know about any excessive delays or missing services on the Southmead routes.

Call for road safety action around the Manor School

Thank you to everyone who completed Claire Young's survey on speed limits on the roads around the Manor School.

Other local schools have a 20mph limit around them, either permanent or when the lights are flashing. Claire wanted to find out if there was support for this at the Manor, and if so which roads people thought should be included.  A majority of those who filled in the survey supported a 20mph limit on the roads immediately around the school  - Roundways, St Anne's Drive and Henfield Road. On Wednesday, Claire attended the council's committee responsible for transport to present them with the results and call for action.

Dangerous parking was also a concern for many who replied. There are no simple solutions and a number of ideas have been tried over the years, including white lines on the roads and a PCSO working with the children to create flyers to hand out. At the meeting, Claire called for the necessary steps to be taken so that the council's parking enforcement car can be used outside the Manor School to help tackle the problem.

Waiting restriction review

South Glos Council is planning to change the waiting restrictions on the roads on and around the trading estates on the edge of Yate. This includes a residents parking permit scheme outside the rank of cottages on North Road. You can find out more and comment on the South Glos website - the deadline for comments is 20th February.

Parking problems to be tackled

Parking restrictions around the Station Road area of Yate are to be reviewed after the Frome Vale Area Forum awarded funding last week.

A resident of North Road spoke at the meeting about the problems she had experienced since the no waiting areas on the roads around the Badminton Road council offices had been extended. With staff no longer able to park on the trading estates, many were opting to park on North Road instead, leaving the residents who have no off-road parking unable to park near their homes. The resident spoke of having to leave her car a mile or more away and then walk two young children along a treacherous route to her home. She asked councillors to back the scheme so that either the restrictions on the estate could be removed or a residents' parking scheme introduced for North Road.

Local councillor Claire Young said, "I'm pleased we were able to fund this review. It's only right that if the council is contributing to a problem it does what it can to tackle it. Changing parking restrictions involves a lengthy legal process. I will make sure residents are kept informed on progress."

Have your say on council's parking enforcement policy

In 2007 South Gloucestershire Council introduced decriminalised parking enforcement. This means that for certain offences, council officers rather than the police enforce the law. Since then the Department for Transport have introduced a number of new powers, including some which the council can choose whether or not to take up. At the same time, the council has been developing its own "custom and practice". All these are now being brought together in a comprehensive parking enforcement policy.

You can read the proposed policy and make comments on the Council's website. The deadline for comments is 14 December 2012.

Have your say on parking in new developments

South Glos Council is looking for your views on the number of parking spaces that should be provided with new homes. There have been widespread concerns that in recent years too few have been provided, causing problems on nearby streets. To have your say, complete the questionnaire online by the 2nd March 2012. Responses will be used to inform the drafting of a Parking Standards Supplementary Planning Document, which will be subject to further public consultation before being adopted by the Council.

Parking consultation extended

A consultation on the proposed changes to the parking restrictions around the Badminton Road council offices has been extended until 28th July after minor changes were made to the Notice of Proposal. You can find out more and comment on the South Glos website.

Extra parking bays

Digging out the extra parking bays

Most residents of Chilwood Close and Algars Drive were delighted to see that construction of the much needed 6 new parking bays finally got under way at the start of the New Year to help to ease their parking problems. The extra bays were funded by Dave and Pat Hockey using money allocated to local councillors following the transfer of council houses to Merlin H.A. South Glos. Streetcare backed the scheme with the additional funds needed and carried out the construction work. Pat and Dave carried out a door to door survey before this project was launched to establish that it was a high priority for the residents. At last week's Safer Stronger Community Group meeting a resident commented that the bin lorries were now able to get down the road without reversing.

Nibley Lane parking

Residents and local councillor Claire Young met a highways engineer in Nibley Lane this morning to look at changes to the yellow lines there. Following the recent resurfacing, the lines needed reinstating, but having seen "no parking" cones all the way down to the river, residents were concerned the double yellow lines might extend that far. The engineer was able to reassure everyone that the cones were actually there to keep the road clear so it could be swept.

Residents wanted double yellow lines around the junction with the Badminton Road to be reinstated, as there have been problems with cars parking there, but wanted the road outside Rockleigh to be free of restrictions. On the other side of the road, it was agreed to take the yellow lines down to the entrance of the Bird Farm to make it easier for people exiting. The engineer sprayed yellow paint to show where the lines should now end and said the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) relating to the lines would be amended when they were tidying up all the TROs for the restrictions around the new council offices.