Agenda item

Concerns and suggestions from petitioners included the following:

·         The petition requested action to be taken to address the parking issues on the Glebe Estate in Ickenham (Burnham Avenue, Milverton Drive and Glebe Avenue).

·         The petitioner's view was that Glebe Primary School, in Sussex Road was responsible for traffic congestion and parking problems locally.

·         As there was no parking at the school, local roads were badly affected, especially at drop off and picking up times.

·         The Council did not enforce parking restrictions around the locality of the school.

·         In addition, school plans to make their grounds and sports hall available to hire would exacerbate these problems.

·         A residents' only parking scheme was being forced on the area by the Council, despite the area being subject to a Council consultation about possible parking options for the future.

·         Residents had raised a number of concerns at the consultation held at the school but no feedback had been provided and these had gone unheeded.

·         Local residents should not be forced to pay £40 per annum for a parking scheme to control the congestion caused by Glebe Primary School.

·         The petitioner suggested that in this case, an exception should be made and the school should pay for the implementation and upkeep of the scheme.

·         A related petition had also been submitted to the Council, concerning a request for parking restrictions/resident only parking to prevent non residents from leaving their cars in Burnham Avenue, Ickenham all day. However, despite contacting the Council, there had been no further developments

No Ward Councillors attended the meeting.

The Cabinet Member, Cllr Keith Burrows, listened to the concerns and responded to the points raised.

Cllr Burrows explained that he understood the crux of the petition was the petitioners desire to have a residents’ parking scheme implemented but with unlimited parking permits for residents and for this to be funded by Glebe School.

Cllr Burrows confirmed that the current ongoing consultation about possible parking options for the future had been sent out with the full involvement of Ickenham Ward Councillors. He confirmed that no scheme would be forced upon residents and any decision taken would be dependent on the majority view of local people.

Referring to the current situation, he stated that the Council had adopted a Borough-wide policy for Parking Management Schemes which had been in operation for a number of years. The current policy provided residents with a permit for the first vehicle for free, but that permits for each additional vehicle were charged at £40 per year. In addition, he clarified that residents also received 10 visitor vouchers free of charge annually and further additional vouchers can be purchased at the price of £5 for a book of 10.

Councillor Burrows stated that he would not waive the charge in this case and advised the petitioner that if they had any concerns about the consultation currently underway or indeed any other issues to which they alluded, these should be set out in writing and would be addressed through the Council's formal complaints procedure in due course.

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Member:

1. Discussed with petitioners and listened to their request for a residents' only parking in Burnham Avenue, Glebe Avenue, Milverton Drive and Sussex Road, Ickenham.

2. Informed the petitioners that all roads mentioned in the petition had already been included in a planned area wide consultation for options to address non-residential parking. The outcome of this consultation would be reported to the Cabinet Member to consider in due course.

REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION

To allow the Cabinet Member to discuss with petitioners their concerns and inform residents of the planned consultation that will be taking place.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED / RISK MANAGEMENT

These were discussed with petitioners.