Agenda item

Following agreement from the lead petitioners, the Cabinet Member confirmed that the petition would be heard jointly with the petition for nearby Beechwood Avenue.

CouncillorShehryar Ahmad-Wallana attended the meeting and spoke as Ward Councillor.

Concerns and suggestions from petitioners, in relation to the Ashwood Avenue and Beechwood Avenue petitions, included the following:

·         Residents first started finding it difficult to park in Ashwood Avenue and Beechwood Avenue around five years ago. The problem had got worse over time, which the petitioner felt was partly due to word of mouth.

·         The roads were close to Hillingdon Hospital, which resulted in hospital staff and visitors using them to park. There were also other none residents parking in the streets on a daily basis.

·         The hospital already advised staff and visitors not to park on local residential streets or, alternatively, to use public transport. However, this was not making a difference to the residents' parking difficulties.

·         Expansion to the Hillingdon Hospital Parking Management Scheme (PMS) into neighbouring streets had exacerbated the parking difficulties in Ashwood and Beechwood Avenue as hospital visitors that had previously parked elsewhere were now parking there. In particular, the extension of PMS into Moorcroft Lane had had a significant impact.

·         The petitioner had been having regular dialogue with the Council's Transport and Projects Team since 2010. This had generally been positive, but the parking difficulties had escalated and action, in the form of a Parking Management Scheme, was now needed.

·         The residents had previously taken steps to try to discourage non residents from parking in their streets. This had included the use of brightly coloured posters and the offering of a park and ride scheme. These measures had not been effective in reducing the number of none residents parking in the area.

·         The petitioners were facing opposition to parking restrictions from residents living at the other end of Beechwood Avenue. This was due to the houses at this end of the street having drop kerbs and driveways. By comparison, the part of the street in which the petitioners lived contained 14 houses, with just two drop kerbs. The petitioners were, therefore, requesting that consideration be given to introducing a PMS only at one end of Beechwood Avenue.

The Ward Councillor spoke in support of the petitioners and raised the following issues:

·         The Councillor had been visiting the area for a year and had been unable to park in the street.

·         He had witnessed none residents parking in the street and noted that some of them parked there on a regular basis.

·         Consideration should be given to extending the PMS to other neighbouring roads. This would ensure that parking difficulties were not displaced to other streets in the event that a PMS was introduced in Ashwood Avenue and Beechwood Avenue.

·         There had been incidents where inconsiderate parking had made it impossible for emergency services to gain access to the streets.

·         The Ward Councillor strongly supported the petitioners' request for the introduction of a PMS.

The Cabinet Member, Councillor Keith Burrows, listened to the concerns raised and noted that difficulties could also be caused by traffic waiting to get into the hospital car park. There was not currently enough parking at the hospital site and this was something that the hospital was trying to resolve. The provision of a multi-storey car park had been considered but the current status of this was not known. It was acknowledged that expansion of the hospital's PMS appeared to have contributed to parking difficulties in other areas. It was also acknowledged that some motorists chose to park on residential streets away from their own dwelling while they went on holiday.

It was noted that the impact of any expansion of the PMS on neighbouring streets would need to be carefully considered, in particular the impact on Evelyns Close and Pinewood Avenue. The petitioners advised that signatures were currently being collected to request a PMS in Pinewood Avenue. The Cabinet Member advised that, once the Council received a petition, it could consider including Pinewood Avenue in a consultation exercise without the need to go to a formal petition hearing.

The lead petitioner for Ashwood Avenue advised that she had not encountered any objections to her petition when asking residents to sign it, although two people had declined to sign as they neither supported nor opposed the petition. A Member of the audience was concerned that, although he had a blue badge, he did not qualify for the provision of a disabled parking bay and could not afford to have a drop curve installed. This made parking difficult, given the current limited availability.

The Cabinet Member advised that the proposed consultation in relation to the introduction of a PMS would need to be undertaken will all the residents of Ashwood Avenue and Beechwood Avenue. However, it would be possible to introduce a PMS to cover only part of a street. This could overcome any objections raised by residents living at the other end of Beechwood Avenue compared to the petitioners.

The petitioners were asked to encourage their neighbours to respond to the consultation in relation to the installation of a PMS, once it had been issued by the Council. This was important as the Council would need evidence of support for a PMS in order to be able to proceed with installation.

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Member

1.    Met with the petitioners to listen to their request for a Parking Management Scheme to be introduced in Ashwood Avenue, Hillingdon.

2.    Instructed officers to add the request for a Parking Management Scheme in Ashwood Avenue and the surrounding area to be added to the Council’s future parking scheme programme for further investigation and more detailed consultation, when resources permit.