BOROUGH OF POOLE
REPORT OF HEAD OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
NEWTOWN PARKSTONE AREA COMMITTEE
13 MAY 2009
WHITECLIFF ROAD/SHERWOOD AVENUE AREA PARKING
- Purpose of Report and Policy Context
1.1. To consider requests for traffic and parking controls in Whitecliff Road and Sherwood Avenue and surrounding roads.
- Recommendation
2.1. It is recommended that
a) a limited wait of 4 hours is imposed along the southern side of Whitecliff Road
b) double yellow lines are placed on the north side of Whitecliff Road.
c) additional parking controls are not appropriate in the remainder of the area
d) Traffic calming measures cannot be justified in Whitecliff Road
e) It is not appropriate for Leisure Services to impose a time limit in the Whitecliff Recreation Ground car park at present.
- Background
3.1. On 4 June 2008 this Area Committee requested a review of parking and traffic issues in the Whitecliff Road/Sherwood Avenue area. Therefore most on road parking is by visitors to the area - notably resident’s visitors and Whitecliff Park users.
3.2. Changes to parking restrictions were made last year by the placing of double yellow lines at the western end of Whitecliff Road to 15m east of its junction with Sherwood Avenue. This has eased the problems caused by vehicles parking on both sides of Whitecliff Road at this point. (See Appendices A and B)
3.3. Whitecliff Park is a valuable leisure area for the Borough and has become much busier with the installation of the new playground equipment. The recent development of the new play area and exercise equipment in the area seems to have attracted more visitors to the area which has meant more on street parking along Whitecliff Road. (See Appendices B and C)
3.4. It would appear that some of the parking at the western end of Whitecliff Road is that of commuters spending the day working in Poole. A waiting limit of 4 hours along the southern side of Whitecliff Road mean that the parking spaces be available for park visitors – those wishing to stay longer could use surrounding roads or the Leisure Car Park. This will require parking bays to be marked and signs to be placed on all the lamp posts along this length of road.
3.5. If this waiting limit is imposed then double yellow lines would be needed for the full length of the north side of Whitecliff Road to enable free flow of traffic – it would not be appropriate to invite people to park on both sides of this road.
3.6. The parking controls would cost in the region of £1,500 and would be a candidate for funding this financial year.
3.7. There has also been a request that Motorcaravans are prevented from parking along Whitecliff Road and Turks Lane. While this has been introduced in the Pay and Display parking areas around Baiter Park, unambiguous legally enforceable signage would be required to make the restriction clear to road users in uncharged parking areas. There is no authorised sign to prevent Motorcaravans parking in this situation. A “cars only” restriction was introduced as part of the beach area parking scheme that was introduced in the early 1990s. Enforcement was not straightforward and the council has been advised that it cannot enforce a restriction of this type without extensive additional signage and amendments to the Traffic Order. The scheme has already been challenged by drivers of large vehicles, as many current “cars” are almost as big as the vans that the scheme was intended to prevent, and there are no plans to extend the scheme. The restriction would cause difficulties for any resident bringing a motorcaravan to their home or receiving visits from motorcaravan owners. A “cars only” restriction would also apply to tradespeoples’ vans which would mean that residents could have difficulty in finding tradespersons to carry out work for them.
3.8. The other roads in the area, namely Sherwood Avenue, Daylesford Close, Whitecliff Crescent, Whitefield Road, Arley Road, Lesley Road and Castledene Crescent are residential, most properties having parking within the curtilage of the property. These roads are not used heavily at this time for parking and, although there might be some displacement of parking, the number of vehicles would not be large and it would not be appropriate to inconvenience residents by imposing parking controls.
- Traffic
4.1 There have been requests for a reduction in the speed limit in Whitecliff Road to 20mph, or the introduction of traffic calming. The Council receives numerous requests for traffic calming measures and, unfortunately, has only a very limited amount of funding for such work. It is, therefore, very important that these funds are spent where they will be most beneficial.
4.2 The Department for Transport imposes very strict criteria on the Council as the Highway Authority when we install traffic calming features, to ensure that the features themselves do not create a hazard. These requirements mean that traffic calming is by no means an inexpensive way of reducing vehicle speeds or accidents. Road Humps, for example, have to be regularly spaced along a road and so there would need to be several along Whitecliff Road to comply with the regulations.
4.3 Accident reduction is a high priority for the Borough and the Council is careful to ensure that greatest benefit is obtained from any expenditure that it commits to road safety. Whilst there would be an understandable desire to reduce the general speed of traffic in Whitecliff Road, fortunately only one personal injury accident has been reported to the Police in the last 4 years alongside the recreation ground. This inevitably means that available resources must be used elsewhere as there are many other locations in Poole with a worse accident record than Whitecliff Road.
- Whitecliff Recreation Ground Car Park
5.1 The Car Park is managed by Leisure Services as part of Whitecliff Recreation Ground. There have been spaces available in the car park on each occasion that observations have been made and the 4hr limit proposed along Whitecliff Road should ensure that parking spaces are always available for Recreation Ground users.
5.2 A 4hr limit was advertised in Whitecliff Recreation Ground car park in 2004. The suggestion prompted a large number of objections and was not proceeded with. It is not felt that a time limit is justified at this time, because the car park would be needed by those Recreation Ground users that would want to stay longer than the 4 hours allowed in the parking bays in Whitecliff Road.
Julian McLaughlin
Head of Transportation Services
Appendix A – Whitecliff Road/Sherwood Avenue area parked vehicles – pre lining
Appendix B – Whitecliff Road/Sherwood Avenue area parked vehicles – post lining/pre play area development
Appendix C – Whitecliff Road/Sherwood Avenue area parked vehicles – post play area development
Appendix D – Proposed Parking Arrangements
Name and Telephone Number of Officer contact:
Steve Dean (01202) 262071
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