Agenda item

Councillor Brian Stead attended the meeting and spoke as a Ward Councillor.  Councillor Mills had submitted an email in support of the petitioners' request.

Concerns and suggestions from petitioners included the following:

• Residents had been advised that a review of the parking scheme would take place after a year but alleged that this had not been done.
• The road was often blocked to large vehicles, ambulances and fire engines, etc., as at the beginning of the road, there were bays on one side and a yellow line on the other side of the road.
• The current scheme allowed residents to park across their driveways, which meant that other vehicles could also park there without getting a parking ticket.
• Parking enforcement officers would not ticket vehicles even when driveways had been registered with the London Borough of Hillingdon.
• The current parking scheme needed to be reviewed as permission had been granted for a new supermarket on the basis of there being unrestricted parking in front of the shops.
• Residents' driveways were being used by cars entering Copperfield Avenue to turn and then park or wait in the road, whilst they or their passengers visited the shops.
• Residents had undertaken a survey of vehicles entering and entering and parking Copperfield Avenue from Pield Heath Road and turning into the shops.  Those entering from Pield Heath Road and parking was 1,333 and traffic entering and parking in Copperfield Avenue for the shops/hospital/other was 2,429.
• Residents suggested the following possible solutions:

·         removal of the yellow line to allow footway parking or design the road to stop vehicles parking along one side Copperfield Avenue.

·         removal of the white access bat marking across driveways and replaced by yellow lines.

·         restriction of parking in front of the shops so that the bays could only be used by customers during opening hours.

·         Extension of resident parking hours to include weekends.

A Ward Councillor spoke in support of the petitioners’ request and raised the following issues:

• The Ward Councillors supported the residents request for a review of the parking management scheme.
• Copperfield Avenue was a unique road in that the parking problem was mainly at the bottom of the road by the shops.
• A survey showed that some residents might not support a change to the current parking arrangements as they were not affected.
• Asked if the road could be split into two areas.

The Cabinet Member, Councillor Keith Burrows, listened to the concerns and stated that the road would not be able to split into two areas, as it would be difficult to identify a cut off point.  There would be a possibility to extend the hours of operation.  The Cabinet Member noted that the current scheme provided continuous bays and that this was not working for residents.  There may be a possibility of putting in individual bays, which would restrict the amount of parking and the parking in front of driveways, which currently occurred.

It was explained, that if the hours of operation were extended to 7 days a week, the hours of operation would be from 9am to 10pm as parking enforcement officers did not work after 10pm.

The Cabinet Member explained that any consultation would need to be for the whole of Copperfield Avenue and residents needed to ensure the consultation document was returned.

The Cabinet Member added an additional recommendation to instruct officers to review the current operation hours of the scheme with a view to extending to 7 days a week, 9 am - 10 pm.  He also asked for the possibility of the type of bays and the upgrade of the single yellow line currently in place to be investigated.

RESOLVED:  That the Cabinet Member:

1.    listened to their concerns with the current parking arrangements in Copperfield Avenue.

2.    asked officers to add the request to the Council’s extensive parking programme for further investigation and possible consultation to include the type of bay currently in place and the upgrade of the single yellow line.

3.    instructed officers to review the current operation hours of the parking scheme with a view to extending this to 7 days a week from 9am to 10pm.