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Letter 3
REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL REVIEW OF FOOTWAY PARKING IN PLANTATION ROAD
26/07/01
Dear Mr Morley,
Some four years ago we requested a review of the footway parking situation in Plantation Road due to access problems incurred with vehicles parked solely on the road. The case was overseen by Mr Gordon Kiley and was eventually sanctioned at a committee hearing. However, when the engineers painted the parking bays, they omitted to paint bays at the top of the road. Because of this, it appears that if we do park on the footway at the top of the road we are still breaking the law and even though Plantation Road is supposed to be exempt, I and several other residents have recently incurred penalty notices for what we feel is parking in the most appropriate and sensible fashion for the given circumstances, i.e. with two wheels on the footway, as for the rest of the road. We are not causing any obstruction and there appears to be no reason as to why residents should not be parking on the footway at the mouth of the road, ie there are no manhole covers in the spaces in question. In fact, footway parking at the mouth of the road is the safest and most sensible option for several reasons and we do not know, therefore, why bays have not been marked in the first place, if that means we are still going to be considered liable.
Parking solely on the road blocks access to the road and makes parking more difficult, this is why residents have always felt the need to park on the footway and why we applied for exemption in the first place. However, we did not ask for exemption for part of the road but for all of the road if we have no exemption for the last 20ft or so, much of the object is defeated, because if vehicles are not allowed to park on the footway at the mouth of the road, there is then a bottleneck and obviously then access to the road is still a problem. Not only that but it is also safer from a vision aspect for drivers turning in or out of Plantation Road if vehicles at the top of the road are footway parked because you can then see more clearly around the corner. Bearing in mind that Plantation Road has a population of small children that play up and down the road, crossing from side to side sometimes in between the parked cars (even though we tell them not to), and Slade Green Road is currently a commercial route, if residents and others alike are still going to be penalised for parking in the safest and most appropriate fashion due to the absence of a white line, we would request that the engineers correct the problem by painting the extra lines necessary as soon as possible, thereby, completing the job as we originally requested and enabling us to park safely and within the law. There is room to park another two vehicles either side of the road in the space in question and that, in Plantation Road, is significant.
I would also like to appeal against the penalty notice I received, and on behalf of anyone else who has been penalised, on the grounds that Plantation Road is supposed to be exempt and therefore, we should not be liable for footway parking. I would also like to point out that people should not be penalised for doing what can be seen to be the sensible thing. There is currently not enough parking for this area as it is, because St Augustine's Church and the Howbury Centre across the road both have inadequate parking and we get the spill-over in Slade Green Road and Plantation Road. Increasing the number of parking spaces at the Howbury Centre is something else that perhaps the council may also be able to look into, perhaps by opening up some parking at the rear of the building. I will be happy to discuss and explain to the engineers exactly what our requirements are and happy to liase with them at some time, hopefully soon. Please also find a copy of the original letter enclosed as this details the original case. Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
D.J. Tarrant