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 Ms Stamp to the meeting and she set out her reasons for requesting a review and the concerns of petitioners. She advised that Albany Road, Gillingham was a narrow road and visibility was restricted owing to a bend in the road. This often resulted in confrontation when one or both drivers refused to reverse to give way to oncoming vehicles. Such confrontations had on occasion turned aggressive and been witnessed by children. In addition, residents were subjected to noise from running engines when cars were unable to move. Residents had therefore petitioned for Albany Road to be made one way to alleviate these problems and it was considered that this low cost proposal would make a difference to the quality of life for those living in Albany Road.

Ms Stamp confirmed that all but 2 residents had signed the petition and the 2 that had not signed lived at one end of the road and were therefore not affected by the problem.  

The Acting Road Safety Manager advised that the Council’s Highway Designers had produced a scheme design as part of previous investigative work and the cost of making the road one way would be £31,860 at 2018/2019 prices. Such costs included the provision of signs which would require illumination and therefore an energy supply would need to be provided.

He advised that no personal injury collisions had been recorded at Albany Road during the last 5 years of available police records and therefore the scheme could not be considered a priority for investment on casualty reduction grounds. Albany Road did not form part of the local distributor road network and was not considered strategic in nature and for these reasons, the scheme had not been prioritised for available funding streams in terms of reducing road casualties or improving journey times.

It was also stressed that it was possible that the speed of traffic using the road could increase should it be made one way and the costs quoted did not include traffic calming measures.

As a way forward, it was possible for alternative options to be investigated such as the provision of passing places along the road. This would result in the introduction of parking restrictions but these might not need to be in operation for 24 hours.

The Committee discussed the petition and noted that this issue had been the subject of previous concerns expressed by residents and therefore warranted further investigation as to possible ways of alleviating the problem.

The Assistant Director Front Line Services suggested that the possible provision of passing places in Albany Road, Gillingham be placed on the 2019/20 parking programme and she explained the process by which the scheme would then be progressed which would likely involve consultation with residents.

Decision:

The Committee:

a)            noted the petition response and appropriate officer action as set out in paragraph 3 of the report.

b)         thanked Ms Stamp for attending the meeting and noted that the possible provision of passing places in Albany Road, Gillingham would be placed on the 2019/20 parking programme for consideration as a matter of priority.