No sympathy from the County Council for wheelchair-bound resident

Here is the County Council’s response to a wheelchair-bound resident who had to wheel into Windmill Road traffic to avoid inconsiderately parked cars in front of the shops:

though pavement parking is inconsiderate and potentially dangerous when pedestrians are pushed out into the road, fortunately, this does not appear to result in road casualties.  With funding reductions we’ve had to prioritise our resources where they bring the greatest casualty reduction benefit.

This is unacceptable. We are discussing this with the police and the Council. It’s a problem for families with buggies and for our less mobile residents driving motorised buggies too. We have considered printing off Pavements are for Pedestrians stickers but

TVP advised us to not give out the stickers to be used by residents as we could be seen to be assisting ‘criminal damage’.  We asked if we could still use the stickers but place them under the wiper blades but were advised the same – that a car owner could accuse us of damaging their car (and making the car illegal to drive if wiper blades not working properly).

To be continued…  If you have any suggestions about other ways to resolve the pavement parking in London Road and Windmill Road, we’d like to hear from you

Use the Park and Rides for free on Saturday

Free Parking

Both Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council are offering free parking at all their Park and Ride sites this coming Saturday 6 December as part of Small Business Saturday – an independent, grassroots movement supporting, inspiring and promoting small businesses. So think ‘small’ as you ride into town.
For more detail check out the Small Business Saturday website.

Local parking enforcement – new report and recommendations

The House of Commons’ Transport Select Committee has published a report on their inquiry into local parking enforcement and is a Must Read for all residents in Headington who are exercised by the current situation.

Click here to see the recommendations. These include:

  • Motorists should not have to appeal against Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) where tribunal adjudicators have repeatedly identified a problem such as poor signage.
  • Adjudicators should also be given powers to allow appeals where local authorities fail to follow statutory guidance.
  • While businesses cannot be completely exempt from parking restrictions, local authorities must ensure that the need to restrict parking and manage congestion does not stifle the ability of businesses to trade.
  • The Department of Transport’s (DfT) operational guidance should be clarified in relation to rules for loading and unloading.
  • That same guidance should stipulate that local authorities implement a grace period of 5 minutes after the expiry of paid for time on all paid parking spaces.
  • Cameras can be helpful in parking enforcement but they should not be used as a matter of routine.
  • Local authority parking enforcement activities should in general do no more than cover costs. Where high demand for parking gives rise to unintentional surpluses these must be clearly explained.
  • The ring fence around parking revenues should not be removed.
  • Annual parking reports should be made mandatory for all local authorities so that information on parking is in the public domain.
  • Local authorities must work with local businesses to develop innovative parking solutions that work for their area while Government should consider developing business rates relief for businesses that invest in affordable town centre parking solutions.
  • If the Workplace Parking Levy scheme in Nottingham proves to be successful the Government should promote the scheme to other local authorities.

County Cllr Roz Smith asked a question about costs and income derived by the County Council from parking enforcement but has not yet received a reply.

Lime Walk parking decision imminent

Item 4 on next week’s Delegated Cabinet Member Decisions meeting is on the removal of a parking bay from Lime Walk. There have been objections from Headington and Quarry County Councillor Roz Smith and the Highfield Residents’ Association.

The meeting is on Thursday 10 October at 11.00 at County Hall. Members of the public should contact Graham Warrington if they wish to speak.  Details as follows: Graham Warrington  Tel: (01865) 815321; E-mail: graham.warrington@oxfordshire.gov.uk

If you would like to look at the officer’s report, you can find it on the County Council’s website here.

The role of Highways in planning –

Due to popular requests (yes! we pushed for this on behalf of residents) the City Council has asked County Highways to make a presentation to City Councillors about the role of Highways in planning. Here are some of the questions we have tabled in advance. Some may not be answerable in this forum, but we are pushing to get answers on all of them while we have the opportunity…..

1. What is the protocol for informing Oxford City Councillors about County planning applications affecting property in their ward, and what is the protocol for informing Oxfordshire County Councillors about planning applications affecting property in their division? Can this be improved? There are often highways and access issues in these that councillors want to know about and challenge.
2. What is the County Highways policy on retrospectively supporting the inclusion of properties for residents’ permits when a condition has been placed on planning permissions by City Council planning committees to deliberately exclude them from the RPZ?
3. What is the County Highways policy on retrospectively supporting the issue of visitors permits to properties given planning permission conditional upon them being car-free? Is the County Highways department aware that if permission is given for the issue of unlimited visitor permits to car-free properties, the residents of those properties will use them themselves, negating the whole point of conditioning a development to be car-free in areas with parking pressure?
4. In a current case, the County acting as statutory consultee has supported a development conditionally upon parking spaces being moved elsewhere down the road, without any reference to wider public consultation and initially without informing ward councillors directly either. Does that conform to County policy?
5. What is the County’s policy for designating some areas of the City eligible for one permit per household only? Which areas of the City does this apply to, and what are the County’s criteria for this, as there are some parts of Headington where parking availability has reached a critical state
6. Re s106 and major developments: in the recent and on-going project at Barton West, the County Highways officer alluded to a total amount of developer money going to County Highways which could not be clearly defined at this stage as there was a ‘shopping list’ of projects on which money could be spent. How can ward councillors and county councillors with knowledge of the area and its problems input to this list and  influence the way in which spending on essential potential projects can be prioritised?
7. How much consideration is given to the needs of pedestrians and cyclists in district centres in the City as opposed to the interests of those travelling by bus, coach, taxi and car? What is the pecking order in priority of highway use?
8. Why are cycle lanes allowed to continue through areas where bus passengers alight from buses, leading to greater risk of collisions between pedestrians and cyclists? How can City and County Councillors get this policy changed so that cycle lane markings on shared space are always diverted behind shelters on high volume roads?
9. What are the criteria for installing box junctions as part of ongoing Highways planning improvement work? There is a great need for box junctions in Headington to improve road safety of cyclists and pedestrians but there is great antipathy from the County Council about putting these in as it will spoil the aesthetic look of the London Road.
10. How can the ward and county councillors get more involved in setting the specification for public transport contracts which are subsidised with s106 contributions? Narrow residential streets are being used by bigger and more frequent bus services which are causing congestion and near misses.
11. Why is the County Council Highways Planning Team so wedded to raised road surfaces at junctions between residential streets and major roads where there are dropped kerbs on corners? This encourages traffic to mount pavements causing near misses with pedestrians. What is the Highways Authority’s input into:
  • selection of sites for this purpose
  • specification of the installation, including criteria for materials used
  • selection of contractor
  • contracts for the contractor and the conditions the contractors were to adhere to
  • quality assurance of the work carried out
  • rectification of deficiencies

The meeting will be held on 15 October so the County officers will have lots of time to research the answers to these questions.

Next Ward Focus meeting is about PARKING

Parking on double yellow lines

We have lots of feedback on residents’ surveys about inconsiderate parking and the level of parking enforcement in Headington’s streets.

Now you have the opportunity to ask questions of those who deal with these issues. Bring your questions to our next

Ward Focus meeting

Tuesday 14 August from 6.00-8.00 pm

All Saints Church House, New High Street

Speakers will be from the County Council, NSL and Thames Valley Police. All welcome.  Entrance is free.

Yellow lines are removed after public protest!

Those yellow lines are coming out today!

After great teamwork by residents and Ruth, and lots of press coverage (see earlier blogs), the County Council has issued an apology and are removing the double yellow lines form around the entry treatments in Latimer Road, Stapleton Road and Bickerton Road today.

The Oxford Mail reports that the OCC spokesman said: “We would also like to say sorry for causing this confusion and can only reiterate that the initial work was carried out with the best of intentions”

Residents in the area report that the lines are already being removed

Latest news from meeting on traffic scheme

A site meeting was held this morning by County officers concerning the new road traffic layout, and Ruth attended together with Patrick Coulter from Highfield Residents’ Association. Here are some notes of what was debated/agreed.

Signage

  • Better/clearer signage needs to be put out at both ends of Lime Walk pending roadworks to alert motorists – County investigating
  • New road junction layout signs in Lime Walk need to be more visible to make sure drivers see them well in advance of the junction, County checking this
  • County officers will not introduce priority direction signs as they believe the current arrangement cuts down traffic speed

Lighting/visibility

  • County officers will carry out a check on lighting at night on this junction. Street lighting have already made some recommendations and budget checks are being made
  • The type of lamps used may be changed, one lamp column may need moving but the number of lamp-posts will remain the same
  • Extra reflectors to be added to bollards (see below)

Bollards

  • Two extra bollards will be installed on each of the corners where there are none at present to protect pedestrians and stop traffic cutting corners – these to have reflectors on three sides
  • County officers will investigate whether reflectors can be put on additional sides of the existing bollards so they show up for traffic from All Saints Road
  • Meanwhile temporary bollards will be set up here as corner cutting by vehicles is perceived to be a significant issue by residents

Build-outs

  • There is a possibility that planter(s) may be fixed here in association with the HRA DIY traffic calming scheme
  • Meanwhile temporary bollards of some kind or a keep right sign will be set up

Speed monitoring

  • The location of the monitoring equipment was discussed. Officers are willing for a local resident to lead on location for this near the top end of Lime Walk midway between the entry points and the All Saints junction and there will be “before” and “after” checks at sites previously used
  • Officers noted that this cut down traffic scheme focuses primarily on helping pedestrians and cyclists by reducing speeds at specific conflict points, rather than reduce volume and speed of traffic throughout the whole area

Latimer Road

  • It’s acknowledged that residents are concerned about vehicles cutting corners on entering Latimer Road from All Saints Road and potential transfer of traffic from Lime Walk. The County is therefore considering how these two concerns could be dealt with inside the budget
  • It would be possible to construct  build-outs in All Saints Rd either side of the entry to Latimer Rd. This would reduce road space to one vehicle at a time
  • There is a concern about whether there would be enough turning space for large vehicles
  • Options will be considered, but in the meantime, one temporary build-out will be set up as a pilot on the Stapleton Rd side, and residents nearby will be informed before the pilot starts

Road safety issue

  • In response to a resident’s question about priority on ‘yellow brick roads’, it was confirmed that if a pedestrian has already started to cross the road then the motorist should give way. Otherwise the driver has priority.

We understand that HRA is holding a meeting to discuss suggestions for further improvements shortly, for example a change to some on road parking (rather than half-on, half off road as at present) in some residential streets, and a meeting on this will be held with the relevant County officer at a later date.

Illegal parking in Kennett Road

Kennett Road residents have told us that they are fed up with the amount of illegal parking on double yellow lines at the top of their road. This frequently makes difficulties for Iceland lorries turning in and out of their delivery area, and this stretch of road is proving perilous for cyclists.

We have made complaints to the County Council ontheir behalf and lobbied County officers.  The officer in charge of parking enforcement has agreed that the kerb markings will be renewed and that patrols in the area are increased

This of course is stage 1 in the battle. Stage 2 will be to make sure it happens! Re-painting works are often agreed but  implementation is delayed, we are  pressing for a date for this to be completed