Agenda item - Petition(s) for Debate

19.1    The mayor stated that the Council’s Petition Scheme provide that where a petition secures 1,250 or more signatures it can be debated at a meeting of the Full Council. There were three petitions which had reached that threshold.

19.2    The mayor invited Alastair Gourlay to join the meeting and present the petition.

19.3    Alastair Gourlay on behalf of Carrie Florian presented a petition for debate titled ‘Protect Our Local Independent Business (Red Route)’.

19.4    Councillor Muten replied:

My call is come with us. Listen to the facts, not the fear.

Say yes to safety, say yes to a safer Western Road that's more accessible for all.

Red routes are widely used in London, including on busy, vibrant shopping streets, not dissimilar from Western Road. Evidence in this city shows that red routes do not automatically reduce footfall. Far from it, on London Road, footfall increased following implementation. So come with us.

Bus passengers' safety is improved, with on-board accidents and incidents significantly reduced, according to Brighton and Hove Buses. Come with us.

Red Routes support bus reliability, reduce congestion, improve road safety, enable more reliable movement along key transport corridors such as Western Road. Journeys improved for commuters and city centre shoppers. Come with us.

Improved public transport reliability can increase accessibility for customers travelling by bus. People coming to Western Road to shop, eat, visit friends, socialise, enjoy a bakery treat, or night out. Come with us.

We have sought to solve this persistent problem of illegal parking. This Council takes its Equality Act duties extremely seriously, yet double yellow lines on Western Road are routinely abused, leaving even blue badge holders unable to park. Cars block pavements, vans obstruct dropped kerbs, access is restricted, sight lines impeded, making Western Road more hazardous than it needs to be, especially for disabled people who are less mobile and parents with buggies. Do not ask us to turn the blind eye. Equality in action for all matters. Instead, come with us.

Using BSIP funding, this Council provided full-time traffic wardens on Western Road. Time and time and time again, people leapt from businesses, be them employees or customers, to move their vehicles during the five-minute observation period before parking again around the block. They knew they were parking illegally and it took a traffic warden to prompt them to move. This is no solution, no offer to solve the problem, only a quest to continue looking the other way. No authority should acquiesce to such a request. Instead, come with us and make Western Road safer, fairer and more accessible for all.

Officers, ward councillors, and I attended the Cornerstone Brunswick that meeting. We heard your views, listened and explored options. When the chair of the Lansdowne Area Residents Association warned that somebody would be seriously hurt or worse because of irresponsible illegal parking, we all stopped. when LARA says help, someone is going to get hurt or worse. We cannot ignore this warning. Come with LARA, come with us. At our co-design workshop, residents, and visitors gathered around maps, placing yellow stickers on suggested solutions. We listened, adapted, worked together, co-designed. Come with us.

At present, Western Road has few disabled bays and fewer dedicated loading bays, with all too often 20 or even nearly 30 illegally parked vehicles blocking access for others. We propose that nowhere on this route will be more than 50 metres from a dedicated disabled parking bay. A huge improvement from what we have presently. Come with us. New loading bays will enable deliveries when needed for as long as it takes, no longer obstructed by illegal parking or having to move. Designed so buses can pass, car passengers can be dropped off and picked up, safer and better than we have now for all of us.

So come with us. Come with residents calling for a safer Western Road. Come with cyclists tired of near misses and collisions. Come with us to improve air quality and breathe. Come with us to make Western Road safer for all. Improve footfall and create a better place to be for you, your customers, your neighbours, for everyone in that community. Come with us.

A Freedom of Information request for penalty charge notices data for fiscal year 25/26, the first year of red routes in the city, says that 12,589 of the city's 18,108 CCTV and false PCNs, or 69.5% of all CCTV and false penalty charges, were issued at seven of the city's 50 CCTV enforced locations. The cynic in me is saying that this is about revenue raising for the Council. Why doesn't this part of Western Road have sufficient vigilance and traffic wardens? Surely that will sort out the problem.

As mentioned earlier, the figures quoted by the consultation responses do not give much of an endorsement for a red route. Delving further, it appears that the consultation was actively promoted to cycling groups, but not simultaneously promoted to businesses, disabled residents, or residents of streets likely to receive displaced traffic.

I understand that the Chair of the Brunswick Town Association has confirmed in writing in April this year that they were not officially consulted by the Council at any stage. The consultation contained no questions about traffic displacement into adjacent residential and conservation area streets. Furthermore, despite requests, there has not been any disclosed responses from Brighton and Hove Buses on the Western Road scheme. These reasons alone make an implementation of a red route scheme flawed. Looking at the plans, the number of proposed bays for disabled people appears totally insufficient. Also, I note that many of the bays are sited down the side streets, some 80% of them.

I propose, therefore, that further consultation is undertaken with residents, resident groups, businesses, and the public before any consideration of a trial red route scheme. Thank you.

19.5    Councillors Sykes and Lyons spoke on the matter.

19.6    Councillor Muten responded:

I want to thank you particularly Councillor Sykes, for your broad general support for this proposal, and I think you recognise the problem, and that's actually really helpful to do, and I think this is absolutely the starting point. I think that's been the thing that I've noticed within the public meetings that I've been to, the public engagement, we've had consultation, public consultation, which everybody has been welcomed to input into and invited to do. We certainly know prejudice on that. We're very keen to ask many people from this community to engage in that process, which many did, including a large number of residents, over half of whom were in broadly favour of this proposal, because it makes it safer. And I very much agree with Councillor Sykes, it is a game of cat and mouse, and Councillor Bagaeen, it is about safety, and the fact is we have illegal parking taking unnecessary risk causing this problem. And red routes are widely used in London, are tried elsewhere, including in the city, and there are significant improvements to the community, the shopping street, the use of the space, and the footfall does step up because people feel generally safer if they know that the sight lines are improved because there isn't a vehicle blocking them because illegal parking. Parking is laid out, red lines and yellow lines in fact are laid out for safety reasons and this is what this proposal does. It's about safety, it's about ensuring that.

So once these are in place. It'd be great if nobody gets caught on camera and we've got zero income because that means it's safer and it's working well. So, I just want to say again, come with us. This is a worthwhile thing to do. It will make Western Road safer and better for everybody, and improve footfall, and I'm sure businesses will benefit from that. Thank you.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the petition be noted