Agenda and draft minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

It was confirmed that all items were in Part I and would be considered in public.

The Cabinet Member welcomed all who were present to the hearing and briefly ran through the petition hearing process noting that he had received the petition and considered the officer report in the agenda; further to this he introduced himself and the officers present.

The petition organiser was present and addressed the Cabinet Member. Within their address, the petition organiser highlighted a number reasons for raising the petition, these points included:

• They had been a driving instructor in the local area for 39 years;
• Hillingdon residents who were learning to drive needed to be able to practise bay parking in a safe environment in order to acquire the skills needed to park safely and to be aware of they types of hazards encountered when parking;
• Most alternatives to Council owned car parks were privately owned and although some did allow learners to practise, many did not;
• Once an individual had passed their driving test, they were likely to be using Council owned car parks on a regular basis and it was important that they had sufficiently been able to practise;
• It was noted that the presence of instructors and learners in car parks was a useful deterrent in car park based crimes;
• It was rare to encounter more than one learner driver in a car park at any one time as it was not feasible for instructors to wait for another learner to finish practising;
• Chestnut Avenue car park was raised as an example of a car park with 70 spaces that would on a regular basis only be utilised by 3 or so cars, most often parked up to walk their dog, this left approximately 67 bays free on a regular basis;
• All driving instructors were required to have regular checks with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) with the emphasis always on safety. To remain on the driving instructor register all instructors must be a fit and proper person;
• It was understood that the condition within the current Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which prohibited the use of public car park spaces for the purpose of instructing learner drivers had been adopted in response to historical issues occurring in 2018 and 2019 at just one car park which was Lake Farm Drive; this car park was noted to be within close proximity to the Hayes Driving Test Centre which often experienced overuse with those having lessons nearby and those taking their driving test;
• With regard to paragraph nine of the officer report, it was noted that the signage added to Lake Farm Drive car park was minimal and easy to miss. Further to this, the incident mentioned in paragraph nine was known to be an isolated incident and the instructor in question should have been reported to the DVSA; the incident was not representative of the Borough’s driving instructors.
• The Hayes Driving Test Centre had closed in late 2019 which was thought to have addressed the cause of the issues in Lake Farm Drive;
• The officer report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.