Agenda item - Member Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by Members:

(a)               Petitions: To receive any petitions referred from Full Council or submitted directly to the Committee;

(b)               Written Questions: To consider any written questions;

(i)                 Driving and parking on the pavement- Councillor Cox

(ii)               Road Safety at the junction of Church Road, New Church Road, Sackville Road and Hove Street- Councillor Hawtree

(c)               Letters: To consider any letters;

(d)               Notices of Motion: to consider any Notices of Motion referred from Full Council or submitted directly to the Committee.

(a)               Petitions

(i)                  Brunswick Place taxi rank- Councillor Sykes

66.1           Councillor Sykes submitted a petition signed by 14 people that requested the council to address noise disturbance, pollution from idling engines and road safety associated with the taxi rank on Brunswick Place.

66.2           RESOLVED- That the petition is received by the Committee.

(i)                  Written Questions

(i)         Driving and parking on the pavement- Councillor Cox

66.3           Councillor Cox presented the following question:

“Ward councillors continue to receive complaints about cars being driven and parked on the pavement –in particular outside St Peter’s Church in Portland Road, and on the Kingsway outside the front of the King Alfred. This practice causes fear amongst vulnerable people using the footpath, and damages the pavement itself, causing trip hazards and expense to the Council.

It is widely believed parking and driving on the pavement is illegal. The Police advise that enforcement action can only be taken by parking wardens. The Council Parking Service advise that enforcement action can only be taken by the Police.

What action do the Council intend to take to deal with this matter?”

66.4           The Chair provided the following response:

“Parking and driving on the footway can be a nuisance and is dealt with under specific legislation where enforcement action can only be carried out by the appropriate agency.

Broadly vehicles being driven on or causing obstruction by parking across the footway are dealt with by the Police under powers operated by them within The Road Safety Act 1984, The Road Traffic Act 1988 and Construction & Use Regulations 1988.

Where vehicles are parked on the footway next to waiting restrictions such as double yellow lines at junctions then the Council’s Parking Service can issue Penalty Charge Notices.

In reality the Council works very closely with Sussex Police colleagues and often has to adopt a joined up approach to enforcement where these issues are not straight forward and boundaries are blurred in specific locations.  A good recent example of this was the joint enforcement undertaken in Elm Grove.

In the case of Portland Road and King Alfred the Council will continue to deal with parking infringements within its existing powers.  The public can also report anti-social parking obstruction or driving issues to Sussex Police directly through Operation Crackdown via their website www.operationcrackdown.org with specific details of the vehicle or incident or alternatively on the phone number  01243 642222 during office hours and speak to an operator.

I too am concerned about the problems caused by driving and parking on the footway and verge, and appreciate that this is a concern shared by many other members and residents.  I do think more needs to be done to tackle this.

I am therefore asking officers to set up a cross party working group to include a representative from Sussex Police to discuss the issues of verge and footway parking on the city, possible solutions whether they are site or area specific or citywide, and the impact of the two pilot verge parking schemes now operating”. 

(ii)               Safety on the junction of Church Road/New Church Road and Sackville Road/Hove Street- Councillor Hawtree

66.5           Councillor Hawtree presented the following question:

“Over Christmas, there was another collision- and terrible injury- at the junction of Church/New Church Road and Sackville Road/Hove Street.

This junction has long been problematic. It is neither an easy one for pedestrians in general nor for drivers who are turning right.

In the latrter case, some make a bolt for it in that interval while the light is amber returning to red.

As councillor for one of the wards which meet at this junction, I should like this to be studied as part of the next Local Transport Plan, popularly know as LTP4, which will run from 2015, with preliminary work undertaken this year”

66.6           The Chair provided the following response:

“Councillors and officers are naturally very sorry to learn of the road traffic collision on Christmas Day which, according to media reports, resulted in an injury to a taxi vehicle driver and a teenage passenger and its sympathies are with those involved.

The Council has a statutory duty under Section 39 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to study road accidents and take such measures as appear to be appropriate to prevent them from occurring.  (Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 39)

To ensure that the Council’s resources are targeted in the most cost effective manner, officers use police road collision reports and consider collision trends over statistically robust time periods to avoid reacting to individual cases.

In accordance with our agreed approach officers will investigate the reported collision at this location within the rolling programme of investigations and will bring forward any proposed measures considered likely to prevent this type of occurrence being repeated at this location, to a future meeting of Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee for consideration”.