Parking petition to go to councillors on 4 October

The petition calling on the council to implement an urgent review of our parking problems will be presented to the Environment, Transport & Sustainability Cabinet Members Meeting on Tuesday, 4 October, beginning at 2.00pm. The meeting will take place in the Council Chamber at Hove Town Hall. Details can be found on the council’s website

You can help to build momentum by emailing councillors before the meeting to urge them to support the petition. If you can spare the time, you could join us outside Hove Town Hall about 15-20 minutes before the meeting starts to demonstrate the strength of local feeling about our parking difficulties.

The Cabinet members hearing the petition will be:

Ian Davey, Cabinet Member for Transport & Public Realm               ian.davey@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Pete West, Cabinet Member for Environment & Sustainability        pete.west@brighton-hove.gov.uk

The councillors for Preston Park ward are:

Mike Jones, Green Party             mike.jones@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Amy Kennedy, Green Party         amy.kennedy@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Leo Littman, Green Party            leo.littman@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Great response to petition!

The petition circulated recently amongst residents of  Springfield, Florence, Rugby and Grantham Roads, and Southdown and Edburton Avenues has had a magnificent response – it now has nearly 400 signatures.

The petition makes it clear that residents find parking much more difficult since the council introduced residents’ controlled parking in the area south of London Road Station. It calls on the council to implement an urgent parking review aimed at bringing a solution to the problem.

The petition is expected to be presented to the council’s Environment, Transport & Sustainability Cabinet Members meeting on Tuesday 4 October. We hope it will demonstrate the local strength of feeling and will encourage the council to take the problem seriously and do something about it.

In the meantime, why not email the councillors for Preston Park ward to urge them to support the petition on 4 October? Let them know your views about how difficult parking is in your street. Our councillors are:

Mike Jones, Green Party           mike.jones@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Amy Kennedy, Green Party       amy.kennedy@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Leo Littman, Green Party           leo.littman@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Meeting on parking problems

A meeting on parking problems was held at the Open House on Thursday 10 February.

There were about 30 residents from Springfield, Florence, Southdown and Rugby with Rugby Road having the largest representation at 13.  All three local councillors – Kevin Allen, Juliet McCaffrey and Amy Kennedy – attended.

Issues discussed were:

• outcome of a complaint to the ombudsman on the way the survey was carried out in 2009.  The complaints had not been accepted so this initiative had come to an end.
• problems that are being caused by residents south of the railway parking north of the railway.  Many roads south of the railway are empty during the day.
• whether residents north of the railway could buy parking permits for south of the railway.
• how pressure can be brought to get residents south of the railway to buy parking permits.
• starting a campaign for a residents parking scheme north of the railway.
• whether a residents parking scheme north of the railway should be the 7 days a week, 11 hours a day scheme or a “light touch” scheme where just two hours a day are restricted.
• reluctance of the council to introduce light touch schemes as they do not make a profit.  (Note: they currently exist in a few areas and appear to work successfully in that they remove commuters and long term parkers but allow flexibility during the day.  Resident permits are £80/year, this could be our way forward).
• should a campaign for parking restrictions north of the railway include Grantham, Edburton etc. and where do you draw the boundary?
• the need for the council to carry out a review on the parking schemes imposed in Preston Park Avenue and Dyke Road Drive where the parking bays are empty for most of the day. (Note: all three councillors agreed to pressurise the council to carry out a review).
• the need for the council to be more flexible in their approach to resident parking schemes and not just keep imposing the 7 days/11 hours a day schemes. Could some zones have a mixture of restricted and unrestricted parking?
• the introduction of park and ride schemes.

The meeting finished without any final decisions on how to progress the campaign. However there will be another meeting in a few weeks’ time to discuss petitions and other ways forward.

Decisions will need to be made on the area specified for any future residents parking scheme and on what sort of scheme is preferred.

It would be very useful to receive your views on the following:

• The light touch scheme would probably be more acceptable for areas to the north but would be less effective in providing guaranteed parking spaces for residents.
• Which one is preferable?
• Where do we draw the boundary?
• If Stanford Avenue and Ditchling Road are boundaries would residents in roads such as Edburton be interested?
• Do you have friends in roads near Fiveways?
• Do they have problems parking?
• Could you start to engage them on what would happen to their parking if a scheme happened to the south of them?

If you have any views that are not in the above list you could post them here by leaving a comment or by emailing communitycarparking@hotmail.co.uk – it would be excellent if we could identify views that most residents could support.

Tip: If you notice a car that appears not have been moved for ages, a good way to get the owner’s attention is to register the car here: https://webcontact.sussex.police.uk/Default.aspx The car is normally moved soon after.

Ombudsman rejects consultation complaint

Following the council’s unsatisfactory response to a complaint about the original flawed consultation process, it was escalated to the Ombudsman.

Unfortunately, the Ombudsman did not uphold the complaint. You can find his response here:

LGO covering letter

LGO report Page 1

LGO report Page 2

LGO report Page 3

LGO report Page 4

LGO report Page 5

LGO report Page 6

The council was found to have been at fault on some aspects of the consultation, but was ultimately found to have acted reasonably. The Ombudsman’s view was that even if the council hadn’t made these errors, it would have made no difference to the consultation outcome.

It’s difficult to understand the logic put forward to explain this. However, this complaint has now been taken as far as it can go.

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Parking more difficult now? Tell your councillor.

Plenty of spaces in the residents parking zone…

South of the railway line

…but it’s not so easy to find a space in the streets just outside the zone.

North of the railway line

Are you finding it more difficult to park in your own street since the residents parking scheme was introduced? If you are, why not email (or write to) your local councillors to let them know.

Tell them how the council’s parking policies are making your life more difficult. Ask them to put pressure on the council to make things better. Make it clear you want the council to do something about it.

Talk to your neighbours and encourage them to do the same.

Your local councillors are:

Kevin Allen (Labour) kevin.allen@brighton-hove.gov.uk King’s House, Grand Avenue, BN3 2LS

Amy Kennedy (Green) amy.kennedy@brighton-hove.gov.uk King’s House, Grand Avenue, BN3 2LS

Juliet McCaffery (Labour) juliet.mccaffery@brighton-hove.gov.uk 38 Clermont Terrace, Brighton, BN1 6SJ

Viaduct Rise residents parking scheme goes live

On 27 September the London Road Station Area (Extension to Area J) residents parking scheme came into force. This was agreed at the Environment Cabinet Member Meeting on Monday 26th July 2010.  Despite a number of objections and two petitions signed by a large number of residents Councillor Theobald ignored pleas to delay its introduction.

This has already led to parking problems for people living just outside the area covered by the scheme. The Argus published an article on 3 October with the headline “People use bins to reserve parking places” describing some desperate reactions.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8428735.People_use_bins_to_reserve_parking_places/

Residents parking scheme – please sign the petition

Please click this link and sign the e-petition “Residents Parking Zone bordered by Florence & Springfield Roads” on the council’s website.

The closing date for signatures is 14 July.

Councillor Amy Kennedy will be presenting this petition – asking for Florence and Springfield Roads and the southern end of Southdown Avenue to be included in the scheme – to Environment Cabinet Members Meeting on Monday 26 July. The decision on whether the “Viaduct Rise” residents parking scheme will be introduced, amended or not go ahead at all will be taken at this meeting.

We will also be knocking on doors with a paper version over the next couple of weeks – you can sign either the electronic or the paper version, but not both. Please speak to your neighbours and make sure they sign it too. Everyone is entitled to sign the petition – it doesn’t matter if they live at the same address. The more people signing the petition the more effect it will have.

If you want to go along and make your views known outside the meeting on Monday 26 July, the meeting is at 4:00 pm at Hove Town Hall. If you do plan to be there please let us know by emailing communitycarparking@hotmail.co.uk so we can get an idea of numbers.

If you haven’t done it already, you can still email the council to complain about the original consultation process to complaints@brighton-hove.gov.uk. A example letter is here.

Keeping the pressure on

The closing date for objections to the Traffic Orders has now passed.

The objections the council received will be included in a report to the Environment Cabinet Members Meeting on Monday 26 July 2010. A decision on whether the scheme will be implemented as advertised, amended or not go ahead will be made at this meeting.

A petition, in electronic and paper formats, is being developed to be presented to this meeting. More on this later.

In the meantime there are still things that you can do to keep the pressure on:

• Make a complaint about the consultation process if you haven’t done so already.
• If you have and received a reply that you’re not happy with, you can progress your complaint to stage 2 of the council’s complaints procedure.
• Write a letter or email to your local councillors, saying that you want our streets to be included in the parking scheme and explaining why. Your councillors are:

Kevin Allen (Labour) kevin.allen@brighton-hove.gov.uk King’s House, Grand Avenue, BN3 2LS

Amy Kennedy (Green) amy.kennedy@brighton-hove.gov.uk King’s House, Grand Avenue, BN3 2LS

Juliet McCaffery (Labour) juliet.mccaffery@brighton-hove.gov.uk 38 Clermont Terrace, Brighton, BN1 6SJ

• Talk to your neighbours to get them involved.

Object to the Viaduct Rise Traffic Order

** Objections MUST be sent before Monday 24 May **

By introducing the Viaduct Rise scheme the council will make the parking problem in our streets worse. We can object to the council doing this.

A Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) is the legal instrument by which traffic authorities implement most traffic management controls on their roads. Anybody can object to a TRO. The traffic authority (Brighton & Hove city council) must consider these objections before deciding whether or not to make the order.

If we want the council to take account of our plight we need as many people as possible to object.

When you object to the Traffic Order make sure you:

• make it clear that you are submitting a formal objection
• state your reasons for doing so
• are selective in the points you make
• refer to the Council’s “statement of reasons”
• ask for details of how the council supports the order
• ask for details of how your objection will be considered

There is a sample objection letter you can use or adapt here

For maximum effect each objector should write or email to parking.consultation@brighton-hove.gov.uk individually.

The notice (which describes the proposed Viaduct Rise scheme and gives the addresses to send your objection to) and Statement of Reasons are here:

Area J ext. Notice

Area J ext. SOR

It’s time to get involved

The council have rejected our request for residents parking in our streets, using an unfair process. It’s time to complain. To find out how to do that go to the Get involved page. There is a sample letter you can use or adapt here.