Mary Reid

The proposal to install parking meters in the Hook Parade has been a hot topic locally. About three weeks ago I wrote about our response to the petition and how we had agreed to put the scheme on hold.

This evening we held a very productive meeting at the Hook Centre to which we invited all the traders, all the people who live in the flats above the shops, plus a cross-section of the other residents who had responded to the consultation. About two dozen people attended. Cllr Rob Lee, co-Chair of the Neighbourhood with me, welcomed everyone and chaired the meeting.

I began by stating very firmly that there will be no parking meters in Hook Parade. But we wanted to know if there were any traffic issues in the Parade that the Council could help with. In particular, the original proposal included new double yellow lines in several places - were these wanted? Doing nothing was, however, still an option.

Barry Allen, our Neighbourhood Services Manager, gave out maps and asked people to identify and prioritise the problems. After he'd brought together the thinking from the groups, he then asked people to come up with some solutions. A top priority was the enforcement of existing restrictions, such as the disabled parking bay and the double yellow lining at the corner of Clayton Road. Other concerns focused on the safety of pedestrians crossing at the Elm Road/Hook Road junction, speeding in the service road, the timing of the deliveries to Tesco and some on-street car dealing. There was no desire for more yellow lining except perhaps a slightly longer length around the Clayton Road corner.

Barry will be writing a report for the Neighbourhood Committee Meeting in July, outlining what actions can be taken about those problems. Two of the traders at the meeting this evening volunteered to review the draft of that report first.

Thanks to everyone who attended and for clarifying the key issues.

At the end of the meeting we all thanked Simon Smith (of the flower shop) for campaigning against the parking meters. At first that may sound a bit odd coming from me - Rob and I had originally supported parking meters because it looked as though the traders wanted them. But local democracy does depend on local people getting involved, gathering opinion and presenting their views to us. In this case there had been a very muted response to the original consultation. Instead the opposition only surfaced after the decision was made, but early enough for it to be reversed.  

We now have a job to do, which is to analyse and improve consultations so that views are captured at the right time and good data is available on which to base decisions.