Agenda item

Forward Plan Ref: 2012/173

Contact: Jim Daughton, Highways & Transport Service Manager, Tel: (01865) 815083

Report by Deputy Director for Environment & Economy (Commercial) (CMDDL5).

As part of the development of a new car park at Hanborough Station the Deputy Leader of the Council considered proposals to introduce new parking restrictions in the vicinity of the Station.  Objections had been received to a formal consultation on the parking restriction proposals.

Suzanne Haslam  spoke on behalf of the residents of 7 houses in the service road.  They were concerned that the current proposal would not meet their requirements.  West Oxfordshire District Council had been sympathetic to their case but it now transpired they were sticking to the current proposal and would not consider residents parking.  They were being offered a white paper scheme which meant they would not be ticketed if parking on the service road.  However many residents were uncomfortable with a situation which effectively saw them breaking the law.  Residents did not feel that the proposal would work nor prevent rail users from parking their and additionally there was no weekend provision which they saw as some respite from commuter parking. Residents thanked First Great Western for the provision of parking but some residents had individual needs and felt it was for West Oxfordshire DC to do something for them.  Residents had been very patient over this and had compromised but the best solution for them would be to introduce a provision for residents parking as currently existed in West End, Witney.

The Deputy Leader of the Council advised that there was no automatic right to park on the highway. It was for West Oxfordshire DC to consider residents parking and he was not in a position to comment on the proposal for a white paper scheme excluding residents from ticketing.

Mr Tole confirmed that the current proposals didn’t cover weekends and residents were asking to extend the proposal accordingly. If the station was busy at weekends then that had been an oversight.

Sarah McManus (First Great Western) confirmed that FGW had worked with the County and District Councils to relieve the parking problem and provide maximum provision for parking and meet the concerns of local residents.  Agreement had been reached to provide 2 parking permits per resident for spaces alongside the access lane which should have provision for around 13 cars. Permits would be free of charge and the permit based system would operate 24 hours a day Monday to Sunday and enforced by FGW staff if cars were parked with no permit displayed. FGW were committing to maximising use of the car park by rail users and to that effect construction was already under way but the concerns of local residents were important and they were happy to discuss those concerns further with residents if necessary.

Mr Tole confirmed that if the restriction needed to be extended to 7 days then further consultation would be required.  The restriction could go ahead as advertised  but monitoring could be carried out to gauge if weekend parking was a problem and an extension to the proposal sought then.  With regard to disabled parking the proposal exempted anyone with a blue badge for a period of three hours so technically a disabled commuter would be able to park all day.  The proposal by FGW for residents represented a good deal and was on a par with many resident parking schemes in the City.

The Deputy Leader of the Council also felt the scheme by FGW was good one and he recognised that the situation in this area could not be allowed to continue and supported the suggestion by officers to monitor weekend parking to gauge whether amendments might need to be made to the scheme.

 Having regard to the arguments and options set out in the documentation before him, the representations made to him and the further considerations set out above the Deputy Leader of the Council confirmed his decisions on this matter as follows:

(a)       to approve the parking restrictions as set out in this report and advertised as part of the Oxfordshire County Council (Various Roads - West Oxfordshire) (Prohibition and Restriction of Waiting and Permitted Parking) (Variation No.1) Order 20**

(b)       monitor weekend parking on the Main Road service road in order to gauge the necessity to extend the restriction to 7 days a week.

Signed………………………………..

Deputy Leader of the Council

Date…………………………