Agenda item - Member Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by Members:

(a)          Petitions: To receive any petitions;

(i)           Lewes Road Traffic Scheme Review- Councillor Yates

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

(i)           Pay-by-Phone parking- Councillor Janio

(c)          Letters: To consider any letters;

(i)           Southdown Avenue- Councillor Hamilton

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

(a)          Petitions

(i)            Lewes Road Traffic Scheme- Councillor Yates

22.1      The Committee considered a petition signed by 771 people requesting the council release all Lewes Road scheme monitoring report produced since November 2013 and for the committee to bring a report to a future meeting fully reviewing the scheme.

22.2      The Chair provided the following response:

“The city council's cross-party transport committee unanimously agreed plans on 2nd October 2012 to make transport improvements to the Lewes Road corridor. This followed an extensive public consultation exercise where the majority of those who responded indicated they were in favour of the proposals.

The scheme included measures to improve public transport services and safety for pedestrians and cyclists as well as the upgrade of traffic signals at key junctions to improve the efficiency of the route for car drivers.

Pre-traffic surveys were undertaken in October/November 2012 in order to establish the existing baseline condition. These surveys included manual traffic counts on the mode of transport, journey times for both buses and cars, automatic traffic counts on surrounding key routes as well as obtaining bus patronage data from the local bus company.

To ensure that post-monitoring is comparable, surveys must be repeated at the same time of year so that seasonal variations do not influence the outcome. As such, the monitoring was repeated in October/November 2013 following the completion of the scheme and the results were published on our website.

In October/November 2014, the construction work to improve the safety of the Vogue Gyratory was taking place and therefore the annual monitoring had to be delayed until January/February 2015 when the works were completed. This delay meant that the surveys were subject to seasonal variation but this was deemed preferable to the alternative of gathering data during major construction works.

Further monitoring is programmed to take place in October/November 2015 after which a full report will be published summarising all the data collected to date. This will include accident analysis and will also identify any impacts on the surrounding area that may be identified as part of the latest data gathering exercise. For example, the November 2013 monitoring report identified an issue with increased queueing at the Coombe Road/Lewes Road junction. As a result, a left turn filter lane was introduced at the traffic lights and the traffic signals were adjusted. The latest queue length surveys for this junction have shown that this remedial action has been very successful and queue lengths have now fallen below the level recorded before the scheme was implemented. Should other issues be identified via the monitoring then the next report will identify suitable solutions to address them.

The report will be published on our website once it is complete which is expected to be in December 2015”.

22.3      RESOLVED- That the petition be noted.

(b)          Written Questions

(i)            Pay-By-Phone Parking- Councillor Janio

22.4      Councillor Janio presented the following question:

“Will the Chair of the Committee please tell me a) how much revenue has been raised through ‘service charges’ since pay-by-phone parking was introduced by the Council in September 2013;  b) what proportion of transactions are now carried out by phone, compared to pay & display and PayPoint pro rata; and c) what impact, if any, the introduction of pay-by-phone parking has had on overall income in the areas where it applies?”

22.5      The Chair provided the following response:

“The service charge for pay by phone transactions was cut from 15p to 10p in May 2015. Since it was introduced 2 years it has raised £98,986. Today 1% of transactions are made at a PayPoint outlet, 25% of transactions are by phone and 74% are at a pay and display machine. Overall income and length of stay have increased in the areas where pay by phone shows the highest take up with 6 % of pay by phone transactions being ‘top up’ extensions of the original parking session”.

(c)          Letters

(i)            Southdown Avenue- Councillor Hamilton

22.6      The Committee considered a Letter from Councillor Hamilton requesting a resolution to parking issues on Southdown Avenue.

22.7      The Chair provided the following response:

“Thank you for your Letter to this Committee.

My understanding is that following a resident meeting Ward Councillors met with an officer on site to discuss this further. It was agreed that the different options that could be considered on Victoria Road are the following;

·                Change the times of the single yellow line on the north side e.g. 9am – 5pm to allow parking after 5pm until 9am in the morning.

·                Introduce 1 hour / 4 hour limited waiting parking on certain sections of Victoria Road – could be 9am-5pm or other times.

·                Look into changing the parking layout on Victoria Road near the park.

These options were sent to Ward Councillors to discuss with residents to see if they felt it would solve some of the issues. As you are aware the main issue is Southdown Avenue residents needing to park after 5pm in the area when spaces are difficult to find. Any feedback can be sent to Officers to progress this.

In terms of a resident parking scheme this would require significant support from residents to take forward and there is concern that this would not solve the current issues as parking would be limited to one side of one road. However, if residents wish to pursue this then it would be advisable for them to make a further representation”.

22.8      RESOLVED- That the Letter be noted.

(ii)          West Hove Parking- Councillor Nemeth

22.9      The Committee considered a Letter from Councillor Nemeth presenting the results of a recent parking survey undertaken by the Wish Ward councillors and requesting the area be consulted on a controlled parking scheme that included the option for a light touch model.

22.10   The Chair provided the following response:

“Thank you for your detailed letter.

As you may be aware from the agenda the West Hove area is being discussed for inclusion in the parking scheme programme.

This report is being presented later in the meeting when Members of the Committee will discuss the way forward”.

22.11   RESOLVED- That the Letter be noted.