Parking and traffic concerns continue for resident living near the Bath Road

Nearly a year on from a public meeting organised for Leckhampton residents to air their concerns over parking and traffic flow nothing has happened.

At the meeting held in March 2012 officers from the County Council agreed to take away a set of actions with the aim of improving congestion in Exmouth Street, Hermitage Street and Francis Street. It was also agreed that traffic flow on Naunton Crescent should be part of this assessment as there are problems there.

One of the suggestions was that a one way system could help traffic flow and county officers had agreed to do the work necessary to see if this was viable before consulting local people for their views. Whilst some local people are very much in favour of a one way system, there are others who very strongly oppose the idea but more work is needed to see if this would be possible so people can make their views known based on a properly thought out proposal.

Parking problems in the area were also debated at the meeting and officers agreed to look at any options that would help local people park in the area.

Hermitage Street

A residents parking scheme had been supported by residents in the Exmouth Street area when the County had conducted a consultation in 2011. However there had been very little support for a parking scheme elsewhere in the Naunton Park area during that consultation. Hence introducing a scheme for these three streets was discounted because there are more cars owned by people living in the area than there are on street parking places. However, it had been suggested at the public meeting that officers would look at existing yellow lines to see if any could be safely removed to facilitate additional spaces.

Since the meeting I have repeatedly contacted the county to ensure that the list of agreed actions is proceeded with but nothing has happened. In the meantime residents say parking is getting even worse. With new residents parking schemes coming into force in the town centre and Suffolks area, there is even more pressure on the unrestricted parking on streets to the East of the Bath Road.

Changes to on street parking on the Bath Road shopping area have gone ahead in this time, but this has not improved the situation in the residential streets nearby which have been ignored.

This was never going to be an easy problem to solve but the public meeting seemed to be very positive and the set of actions the officers attending the meeting agreed to was clear. However since then nothing has happened. County Officers promised to write to residents to let them know about the options available but after several months it was clear this wasn't going to happen so I wrote a letter myself. Months later I am getting regular emails from desperate residents wanting to know what is happening. It should not have taken so long to proceed with the actions that were agreed at the meeting, it is unacceptable for local people to be left in limbo.

Meanwhile people living in streets to the West of Bath Rd have collected a petition and have surveyed residents about extending the residents parking scheme into that area. Following the work undertaken by local people the County Council have agreed a timescale to create a formal proposal to help people in this area. If this goes ahead with no work happening in the streets East of Bath Rd then there is a high probability that problems here will get much worse than they already are.

I think it is vital that the work promised is done as soon as possible; perhaps the option of a residents parking scheme also needs to be revisited. I plan to meet up with some local residents soon to discuss organising our own detailed survey in the area, we want to kick start a campaign to get the County Council back working on the issues here as was promised.