BOROUGH OF POOLE

TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY GROUP –THURSDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2009

REPORT OF HEAD OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

RESTRICTIONS – DEVON ROAD

PART OF THE PUBLISHED FORWARD PLAN – No

STATUS (Service Delivery)

  1. Purpose and Policy Context
  2. To consider a request from residents of Devon Road for a review of the traffic situation in Devon Road, and a request from St Marys School for staff to be eligible for permits to park in Devon Road.

2.DECISIONS REQUIRED

2.1It is recommended that the Portfolio Holder be requested to approve the following:

a)That no changes are made to the existing parking controls in Devon Road

b)That permits purchased by St Marys School should be available for use in Devon Road.

3.0BACKGROUND

3.1On 27 November 2008 this Group considered a request for Residents Only parking in Devon Road and a request from the school for staff to be eligible for permits in Devon Road. Based on the recommendation of this Group the following decisions were made by the Portfolio Holder:

(i)a “resident permit holder only” restriction is not justified in Devon Road;

(ii)Devon Road should remain in the same parking zone as at present;

(iii)the current eligibility criteria for commuter permits be upheld which would allow St. Mary’s School to purchase permits for the local parking zone; and

(iv)officers to liaise with St. Mary’s School and local Ward Councillors in order to achieve the most effective way of distributing their permits to also include consideration of using Hunt Road.

3.2Since then both representatives of the residents and the School have made formal complaints over this matter on the basis of:

  • Residents: It has been suggested that the previous meeting did not give the residents representative a fair chance to address the Group and that important information was not made available to the meeting.
  • The School: request more permits than the Ward Councillors were prepared to agree.

This has culminated in the Ombudsman suggesting a review of this decision. It is considered that the most appropriate way to do this is for the issues to be brought back to this Group for re-consideration.

3.3The residents’ representative and the school have provided their own statements and these are included at Appendix A and Appendix B (the school has included a number of photographs in their statement and these will be circulated to members at the meeting) – the issues are reported separately below.

4.0RESIDENTS’ REQUEST - PARKING

4.1Devon Road is a residential cul-de-sac, which also forms the only vehicular access to St Mary’s School. Parking controls were introduced in Devon Road as part of the extension of the Heckford Park scheme into the Hunt Road area in 2006. The controls were introduced to discourage the heavy all-day parking by Town Centre and Hospital workers that had previously taken place in the area. Parking is restricted to 2hrs between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday with an exemption for resident permit holders.

4.2Although the parking controls prevent all day parking by non residents, Devon Road experiences heavy parking at school start and finish times. Residents have asked for the road to be restricted to “Resident Permit Holders Only” at all times to discourage parking by school parents, and by school staff. The letter from a representative of the residents is attached at appendix A.

4.3On 28 February 2008, this Group revised it’s policy on Resident Parking Schemes and recommended that applications like this should be assessed by considering a “tick box” system based on the revised policy. The “tick box” assessment for Devon Road is attached at Appendix C. In summary, the Council’s current policy is that “Resident Permit Only” schemes would only be introduced in areas where there is a severe shortage of off-street parking – this is not the case in Devon Road. The situation in Devon Road at school start and finish times is very similar to that outside most of the Borough’s schools and it would be hard to justify introducing special measures here, when this would potentially displace the problems out into Hunt Road, which already experiences intense problems too.

4.4Parking would not normally be accommodated on both sides of a road of Devon Road’s width (it varies between 6.2m and 6.7m wide) but discussions with residents and with the school indicate that there would be opposition to reducing the amount of parking space in the road. The Fire Service have carried out a trial and felt that they could reach the school, if necessary, without further parking restrictions.

4.5Against this background, it would be hard to justify a high level of parking enforcement of Resident Permit Only parking in Devon Road. At the start and finish of the school day, Civil Enforcement Officers are heavily committed to enforcing yellow lines and school zig zag markings across the borough. Enforcing the particular use of marked parking bays (which is recognised as being a lower category of contravention in the national schedule of penalty charges) would inevitably be a low priority.

5.0PERMITS FOR SCHOOL STAFF

5.1When the Hunt Road and Devon Road parking scheme was advertised, this Group considered the impact that the parking controls would have on employees based in outlying areas outside the town centre. The area parking scheme is intended to discourage parking by town centre workers, who have other alternative parking and travel options available. The scheme is not intended to disadvantage local businesses in areas outside of the Town Centre. On the fringes of the controlled area, workers will merely be displaced into unrestricted streets nearby if they are denied permits. On this basis small local businesses are allowed to buy up to 7 permits (currently £50 per quarter) for their staff.

5.2St Mary’s School has very restricted on-site parking and have asked to purchase permits for their staff to park in Devon Road. The entitlement to purchase up to 7 permits was confirmed by the Portfolio Holder last year but there was discussion about how many of these should be allowed for Devon Road. This issue was left for liaison with the School and Ward Councillors.

5.3Following discussion with the Ward Councillor most closely involved with the issue at the time, the school was offered 3 of their 7 permits for use in Devon Road. The School asked for this to be reviewed as they would like to be able to use all of their permits in Devon Road. The other two Ward Councillors were then consulted and their view was that no more than 3 permits should be offered for use in Devon Road (in fact they had serious concerns that this would be too many in a small road like Devon Road). Residents of Devon Road have asked that the school’s permits should not be applicable in Devon Road.

5.4The School has submitted a series of photographs showing that there is generally space in Devon Road during the day. It would be difficult to justify requiring school staff to park in Hunt Road but not in Devon Road, indeed, they are likely to park in a more controllable way than parents at the start and finish of the school day. There are approximately 19 parking spaces in Devon Road so there would still be 13 spaces available for residents and visitors (there are currently 13 resident permits held by 7 households in Devon Road). It is possible that the reduced availability of spaces may also reduce the number of school parents looking for spaces in Devon Road at the start and finish of school.

7.0FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

7.1There is only a small revenue budget available to maintain Controlled Parking Zones, the cost of which is borne by income from permits and enforcement.

  1. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

8.1Changes to the parking controls in Devon Road would require a Traffic Regulation Order. There are no legal implications with the sale of parking permits, but there could be challenges if the permits are restricted to individual roads within a zone

  1. RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

9.1The Fire Brigade have already carried out an assessment of the access implications in Devon Road and did not request further restrictions. All schemes will be safety audited during design and implementation.

  1. EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS

10.1None

  1. CONCLUSION

11.1The problems in Devon Road at the start and finish of the school day are not significantly worse than in many other streets near to schools - in fact Hunt Road already experiences very intense problems. Safety features will be considered around St Marys School in due course.

Julian McLaughlin

Head of Transportation Services

Appendix A – Letter from residents’ representative

Appendix B – Report from St Mary’s School

Appendix C – Assessment for Devon Road

Name and Telephone Number of Officer Contact:

Stephen Dean (01202) 262071

TAG261109T3D


APPENDIX C

Request for Resident Parking Scheme – Devon Road
Resident Permit Only restriction where the parking pressures are so severe that short stay parking also needs to be limited.
a)Do fewer than half the households have access to an off street parking space? and
b)Is there is a ratio of less than 1 on-street parking space for every 2 households in the zone.
c)Is there alternative parking elsewhere to accommodate any displaced parking?
d)Schemes of this type are unlikely to have any strategic benefit and so they will need to be funded by the Area Committee, or by the sale of permits. Is this funding available? / No, all have of street parking
No, approx one space per 1.2 Households (or 0.8 kerbside spaces per house)
Only in nearby roads of similar character
Currently only 8 Households have bought permits (9 permits in total: income of £360pa)
Features of this type of scheme
c)Eligibility for parking permits will be open to residents in the surrounding area and will not normally be restricted to residents of an individual street.
d)The Resident Only scheme will have one of the two following formats:
i)Permit Holder only parking at all times
ii)Parking limited to 2hrs, 8am-6pm (except permit holders), Permit Holders only between 6pm and 8am
c)Residents will be entitled to purchase 50 daily permits per year for their visitors (subject to the Council’s standard conditions and charges). / Residents have requested that this feature is not applied
Residents have asked for permit holders only

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