Sterte Area Traffic Calming and Parking Restrictions

BOROUGH OF POOLE

HAMWORTHY EAST AND WEST

AND POOLE TOWN AREA COMMITTEE

9 SEPTEMBER 2009

STERTE AREA TRAFFIC CALMING AND PARKING RESTRICTIONS

Matters for Consideration

1.1.The design and implementation of traffic calming measures to allow Sterte to become a 20mph area following the Residents Consultation (funding via a Section 106 Agreement from Knightstone Housing Association development in Sterte Close).

1.2.The response to the Residents Consultation regarding alterations to the existing parking restrictions in the Sterte area (Residents Parking Zone B).

1.3.Three petitions received as a result of the Residents Consultation.

Recommendation

2.1.It is recommended that

a)In view of the response to the Residents Consultation the Traffic Calming is implemented as shown in Appendix A.

b)In view of the response to the Residents Consultation this Committee allocates £1,000 to amend the Parking Restrictions to a two hour waiting restriction between 8am and 6pm Monday to Sunday (Permit Holders exempt) AND Permit Holders only 6pm-8am Monday to Sunday.

c)An allocation of £2,000 is made from this Area Committees Transportation Budget to allow the introduction of speed cushions in Sterte Road immediately west of the Sterte Esplanade Junction.

d)The Petitions requesting the re-opening of Sterte Avenue and the amendments to the Visitor Permit Arrangements are noted but not proceeded with for the reasons explained in paragraphs 4.3 and 4.5 below.

Consultation

3.1.Consultation Documents were delivered to the Area following the prior circulation of an introductory letter from the Ward Councillors.

3.2.An exhibition of plans showing the Proposed Scheme was held from 2-7pm at St Johns House on 16th July. Officers and Councillor Leverett were on hand to answer queries. Residents were able to leave their Consultation Sheets in a collection box at the Exhibition, send them in by post or send an e-mail response. The Exhibition was well attended and those attending expressed a great variety of opinions.

3.3.The Consultation Results were as follows (a full summary of the responses can be found in Appendix B):

a)72 responses were returned (from 332 households) providing a representative response (22 %), of these:

b)78% were in favour of the Traffic Calming Proposals

c)64% were in favour of extending the Hours of Operation of the Resident Parking Scheme

3.4.The Response indicates that both the Traffic Calming Proposals and extending the Hours of the Parking Controls are supported locally and it is suggested that the Proposals should be approved and progressed. Some amendments have been made to the original Proposals in response to the Consultation – most notably dropping the Proposal to allow parking alongside the open space in Sterte Esplanade (discussed in item 4.2.a below). Minor amendments have also been made to the positions of some of the features and parking bays. The speed limits and parking changes will need to be formally advertised and objections will be reported back to this Committee.

3.5.Concerns were expressed during the course of the Consultation about the safety of the Sterte Esplanade/Sterte Road Junction, and the difficulties that pedestrians face here. It would be helpful to add another set of speed cushions at the start of the 20mph zone to limit vehicle speeds at this point, but the Budget would not accommodate this. It is suggested that the Area Committee could allocate approximately £2,000 of its Budget to fund this element of the Scheme.

3.6.The comments received as a result of the Consultation have been summarised and can be seen in Appendix C.

Petitions

4.1.The Council received three petitions during the course of the Consultation period and these have been circulated to Committee Members.

4.2.Sterte Esplanade objection to proposed changes to the Residents Parking Scheme on Sterte Esplanade. The petition was signed by 39 residents of Sterte Esplanade. The covering letter attached to the Petition made reference to the following points:

a)Allowing parking on both sides of the Esplanade. It was suggested as part of the Consultation that parking bays could be placed on both sides of Sterte Esplanade; this was met with objection both at the Exhibition, in the Consultation responses and this Petition by residents of Sterte Esplanade. In response to this, the Proposed Parking Bays have been removed from the Proposal, and the Single Yellow Line currently in place will remain (No Waiting Mon-Sat 8am-6pm).

b)Objections to the changes in the Parking Restriction Times. As this formed the basis of the Residents Consultation it can be seen that overall the Residents of Sterte support these changes. The Esplanade forms part of Zone B, and it is important to keep the controls within the zone consistent. If the controls were left as they are in Sterte Esplanade all Non-Resident Permit Holders would park in this Road and this would lead to the same type of complaints as are currently received in other parts of the Zone.

c)The Letter also made reference to opening up Sterte Avenue (see paragraph 4.3 below) and changing the way Visitors Permits are issued (see paragraph 4.5 below).

4.3.Petition for Sterte Avenue West to be opened for vehicle access from Holes Bay Road. The Petition contained 45 signatures mostly from residents of Sterte Road, and this issue was mentioned in the covering Letter submitted with the Sterte Esplanade Petition mentioned in paragraph 4.2 above.

4.4.This Committee would need to refer this to the Transportation Advisory Group if it wanted to progress this suggestion, as there would be strategic implications. Nevertheless, this is not recommended because:

a)Sterte Avenue was closed at a point where most of the Industrial Units could only be accessed from Holes Bay Road/Sterte Avenue West, to prevent the majority of the commercial traffic from using Sterte Road. Although there are still some commercial premises that can only be accessed from Sterte Road, the Council will encourage the creation of an access from the rear whenever this can be achieved through the Planning Process.

b)While opening up Sterte Avenue might allow another route for vehicles to reach the few remaining commercial units in Sterte Road, it would also open up another route for employees and deliveries to get to and from the, larger, Sterte Avenue West Estate. For many movements, the route through Sterte Avenue West will be more convenient than using the Holes Bay Road.

c)By opening up Sterte Avenue, traffic will simply be moved form one residential road, which will enjoy some protection from the Traffic Calming features, to another, which would have no protection.

d)Since the Petition was circulated, a number of residents of Sterte Avenue included the comment that they do not want Sterte Avenue to be opened up, on their Consultation Sheets.

4.5.Petition to replace the current system of visitors parking permits. The Petition contained 15 signatures mostly form residents of Sterte Road, and this issue was mentioned in the covering Letter submitted with the Sterte Esplanade Petition mentioned in paragraph 4.2 above.

4.6.As with the previous Petition this is not something this Committee could decide, as any changes here would need to be applied across all Residents Parking Schemes in the Borough. The main thrust of the Petition is to have a single visitors permit that the residents would keep and give to visitors to use as and when required. Residents are very concerned that permits should only be obtainable by residents and their visitors and the Council has a number of checks to avoid abuse of resident and visitor permits. There would be no way of checking that permits were actually being used by genuine visitors and the requested system would be open to abuse. The Permits would very attractive for Town Centre workers to use on a ‘sub-letting’ basis from residents.

Julian McLaughlin

Head of Transportation Services

Appendix A – Plan of Proposed Traffic Calming

Appendix B – Summary of Consultation Results

Appendix C – Summary of Consultation Comments

Name and Telephone Number of Officer Contact:

Steve Dean

01202 262071

Appendix B

Summary of Consultation Results

Traffic Calming / Parking Controls
Road Name / No of properties / Returned / Returned% / For / Against / For / Against
Sterte Avenue / 27 / 9 / 33.33% / 8 / 1 / 9 / 0
Sterte Close / 16 / 2 / 13% / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1
Sterte Court / 134 / 2 / 1.49% / 2 / 0 / 1 / 1
Sterte Esplanade / 34 / 11 / 32.35% / 5 / 6 / 0 / 11
Sterte Road / 112 / 45 / 40.18% / 38 / 7 / 33 / 12
West View Road / 9 / 3 / 33.33% / 2 / 1 / 2 / 1
78% / 22% / 64% / 36%
Totals / 332 / 72 / 22% / 56 / 16 / 46 / 26
NOT RETURNED / 260 / 78%

Appendix Ci

Summary of Consultation Comments

Road Name / Comments
Kerry foods parking is an issue / Don't want parking on both sides of the Esplanade / HGV's should use Hole Bay Road / Include Bridge and Sterte Ave in 20 Zone / Kerry Foods employees are a nuisance / Sterte Ave should be opened up / Parking on both sides of the Esplanade is a good idea / Sterte Ave should NOT be opened up / Close Sterte Bridge / Speed is a problem at the moment / Do not like speed cushions
Sterte Avenue / 4 / 0 / 1 / 3 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 4 / 0 / 1 / 1
Sterte Close / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Sterte Court / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Sterte Esplanade / 1 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Sterte Road / 3 / 0 / 5 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 4 / 0 / 2 / 2 / 1
West View Road / 1 / 0 / 1 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0
Totals / 9 / 8 / 7 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 4 / 4 / 3 / 3 / 2

The responses to these comments are on the following page.

Appendix Cii

Responses to Consultation Comments

Kerry Foods employee parking is an issue – the Council is aware of these problems and the Consultation is a direct response to complaints received prior to the Consultation. It is hoped that the proposed extension of the hours of operation of the parking controls will alleviate these problems.

Parking is not wanted on both sides of the Esplanade – response as per Petition response in item 4.2. of this report.

HGV’s should use Holes Bay Road – the Council has no power to force anyone to use any particular road although we will continue to work with local businesses to promote this route where possible. It is worth remembering that the amount of HGV traffic has been greatly reduced by the building of the Holes Bay Road in the late 1980’s and now the only vehicles that tend to use Sterte as those that are gaining access to a particular property – prior to Holes Bay Road being built nearly all traffic heading into Poole Town would have used Sterte Road.

Include the Bridge and Sterte Avenue in the Scheme – whilst we can see the benefits to this, unfortunately due to technical reasons and limited funds it is not possible to extend the Scheme to these areas.

Kerry Foods employees are a nuisance – the concerns residents expressed have been passed to the local Police,

Sterte Avenue should be opened up – response as per petition response in item 4.3 of this Report.

Parking on both sides of the Esplanade is a good idea – response as per petition response in item 4.2 of this report.

Sterte Avenue should not be opened up - response as per petition response in item 4.3 of this report.

Close Sterte Bridge to all traffic except busses and emergency vehicles – there is already a weight restriction on the Bridge and traffic signal controls due to the valuable pedestrian improvements seen here. As mentioned in point 3 of this Appendix traffic numbers have already been reduced significantly since the building of Holes Bay Road. Traffic use is also likely to decline with the introduction of traffic calming – a good example of this is in Upper Parkstone where it has been shown that traffic calming reduced traffic not only on the ‘calmed’ roads but also those surrounding them.

Speeding traffic is an issue here – the Traffic Calming Scheme should address this point.

Do not like speed cushions – speed cushions form a significant part of many traffic calming schemes and have been proved to be an effective method of traffic calming (see point 9 of this appendix for Upper Parkstone example)

APPENDIX D

Summary Of Amendments To The Consultation Plans

a)The parking bays proposed alongside the grass in Sterte Esplanade will not be provided.

b)Sterte Esplanade and West View Road will be signed as a 20mph limit instead of being part of the 20mph zone – the signing regulations would not allow these roads to be signed as a 20mph zone

c)The parking bay outside 127 Sterte Road (30 min limited wait) will be removed to allow buses to line up to the cushions.

d)The set of cushions near the gateway at the northern end will be moved north to outside no. 129 to allow buses to line up to the cushions.

e)The southbound bus stop will be moved to the end of the parking bay on the east side of Sterte Road and a build-out also installed here.

f)Parking will be prevented between No 14-20 Sterte Road (where the bus stop currently is) to create a passing bay.

g)At the southern gateway, a 5th set of cushions will be installed. The build-out proposed to the north east of the Sterte Esplanade junction will be replaced with hatching.