Agenda item

Report ES14057

Members considered the Council’s approach to requests for various parking controls, including waiting restrictions (yellow lines). Report ES14057 proposed criteria for determining where parking should and should not be permitted, outlining design considerations for parking controls in residential areas (including minor changes to the highway) and incorporating:

·  Waiting Restrictions (yellow lines)

·  Flank Boundary Parking

·  Footway Parking

·  White Bar Access Markings

·  Disabled Persons Parking Bays

The report also sought to reaffirm the Council’s position on trying to provide suitable on-street parking places.

It was recommended that existing practice be confirmed across the borough with the following approach to be taken:

• the standard length of junction treatment restrictions to be 10 metres, with authority to vary in special circumstances depending on individual site circumstances or for engineering / road safety issues;

·  where road widths permit, as described at paragraph 3.17 of Report ES14057, to allow flank boundary parking without restrictions;

·  for any new scheme promoted, or existing scheme reviewed, to assess locations where flank boundary parking can be provided and where restrictions can be removed to provide additional parking places; and

• footway parking to only be introduced in special circumstances and where sufficient footway widths as described at paragraph 3.24 of Report ES14057 can be retained - this only applying where footways are deemed sufficiently robust, or can be upgraded, to withstand the weight of vehicles without excessive damage.

Report ES14057 also gave notice of certain parking controls to be reviewed.

Officers considered that a new approach was needed for implementing White Bar Access markings, including agreed criteria, to allow a consistent approach borough-wide. A further report would outline such issues and recommend a new process for implementation. No fee was currently charged to applicants for White Bar markings.

On Disabled Persons Parking Bays, the number of bays across the Borough had increased over the years, along with the Council’s costs to install, maintain and process applications for such bays. With the existing process and criteria having been in place for a number of years, a review of the current process was considered necessary. As such, a further report would be compiled to examine the processes involved in implementing disabled drivers’ bays, along with ways to address escalating costs and the time involved in assessing and implementing such schemes.

The Chairman supported measures in Report ES14057 for footway parking. He suggested that footway parking exemptions, in the circumstances outlined, might be helpful to allow emergency vehicles to pass. Permission for footway and carriageway parking should take account of street furniture and trees, so emergency vehicles could if necessary mount the pavement to reach their destination; it would be beneficial if posts holding signs showing the parking restrictions could be set back from the carriageway. Removing unnecessary street furniture could also enable footway parking on both sides of a road. For consistency, the Chairman asked that the policy outlined in Report ES14057 correspond with footway parking criteria outlined in a further policy document published by the Council, particularly in regard to available footway width.

Concerning disabled parking bays, it was confirmed that officers were not routinely informed of a disabled parking bay no longer being required. The issue would be looked at by officers and would feature in a further report to Members following a review of procedures for Disabled Parking Bays.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to adopt the policies on parking controls outlined at Section 3 of Report ES14057.