Agenda item

This report advises the Committee of any petitions received by the Council which fall within the remit of this Committee including a summary of the response sent to the lead petitioners by officers.

There is one petition referral request to be considered at this meeting.

Discussion:

The Committee received a report setting out a summary of petitions received by the Council which fell within the remit of this Committee.

Paragraph 3.1 of the report set out a summary of the responses to petitions that had been accepted by the petition organisers.

In accordance with the Council’s petitions scheme, one petition had been referred for discussion by the Committee and the lead petitioner was in attendance and invited to address the Committee.

The Committee welcomed Mr Belfield to the meeting and he set out his reasons for requesting a review and the concerns of petitioners for road safety at Rectory Grange, Canon Close and Rochester Maidstone Road.

He advised that the petitioners were requesting additional resources for parking enforcement to provide a concentrated blitz on illegal parking on double yellow lines between the hours of 3pm and 3.30pm, the extension of double yellow lines on one side of Canon Close between Rochester Maidstone Road and Rectory Grange and, an increase in the level of signage where there were double yellow lines.

He advised the Committee that the petitioners had the support of the local Councillors and the Chair of the Governing Body of the St William at Perth Catholic Primary School.

He explained that petitioners were concerned for the safety of school children as a result of impaired vision and blocked sight lines by cars parked illegally on the highway by parents when collecting their children from school. He advised that on occasions, it was not unusual for cars to be parked up over an hour prior to school closing time.

He also referred to previous attempts to establish a Walking Bus for the local school in an attempt to reduce the number of parents collecting their children from school by car but stated that this had not been successful.

The Acting Integrated Transport Manager explained that once schools re-opened in September enforcement activity would be increased around the school concerned and penalty charge notices issued if vehicles were parked in contravention of the existing restrictions.

It was not intended to provide any further upright signage as double yellow line markings no longer required such signing to be enforced and, the Council was committed to reducing unnecessary sign clutter.

He also suggested that along with a parking engineer, he would review the existing parking conditions in Canon Close and arrange a site visit in conjunction with the local Ward Councillors during the peak hours in school time.

The Assistant Director Front Line Services expressed disappointment that attempts to set up a Walking Bus for pupils at the local school had not been successful, particularly as the Council actively encouraged such initiatives and she agreed to raise this with the Road Safety Team.

The Committee discussed the petition and it was noted that indiscriminate parking by parents when collecting their children from school was a nationwide issue and not confined to Medway.

The Assistant Director Front Line Services confirmed that the Council was fully aware of the problems and actively pursued enforcement campaigns but there were insufficient resources or staff to cover each school every day. Therefore, in areas where it was known that there were particular problems enforcement was carried out on a rota basis.

She advised that there were some initiatives that could be considered to alleviate these issues e.g. the Walking Bus, encouraging pupils of secondary schools to walk to school, and use of CCTV/static cameras to assist with enforcement and officers would be investigating all options available.

A Member expressed concern that had Mr Belfield not referred this petition to the Committee for discussion, limited action had been initially proposed in response to the petition. He was concerned that this could lead to an inconsistent approach to responding to petitions. The Assistant Director Front Line Services stated that she was investigating the handling of this particular petition and she would have expected a site visit to have been undertaken in the first instance before a response had been sent. She was confident that this would not happen again.

Decision:

The Committee:

a)            Noted the petition responses and appropriate officer action set out in paragraph 3 of the report;

b)            Thanked Mr Belfield for attending the meeting and raising the concerns of petitioners in Rectory Grange, Canon Close and Rochester Maidstone Road;

c)            Noted that the Acting Integrated Transport Manager has advised that there will be increased enforcement activity around the school when it re-opens in September and that he will be arranging a site visit in conjunction with Ward Councillors to assess the area and any other possible action that can be taken and the outcome will be notified to Members of the Committee via a briefing note;

d)            Noted that the Assistant Director Front Line Services will be referring the issue of a Walking Bus for the local school to the Road Safety Team.