Agenda item

The Panel received a report of the Corporate Director of Environment and Enterprise which set out details of the petitions that had been received since the last Panel meeting in February and provided details of the Council’s investigations and findings where these had been undertaken.

An officer tabled a document which set out details of a petition which had been presented by Councillor Ameet Jogia, at the February 2015 Panel meeting, on behalf of residents of Lake View and Dukes Avenue, but had been omitted from the main agenda in error.  He provided a brief overview of the report.

Petition 3 -  Wemborough Road & Weston Drive – Request for 20 mph zone

With regard to the above petition, a Member back benching stated that:

·                     the petition had been signed by 90% of the residents of Wemborough Road & Weston Drive;

·                     residents in the vicinity of Wemborough Road & Weston Drive did not agree with the official accident report figures and wanted this to be reviewed;

·                     the road markings on the junction of Weston Drive & Wemborough Road had only recently been re-painted;

·                     the residents understood that a 20mph zone could not be implemented, however, the Stanburn, Whitchurch and Avanti House schools would significantly increase the volume of traffic and consequently safety risks in the area;

·                     an additional assessment be carried out before the next meeting of the Panel.

Following comments and questions from Panel Members, an officer advised that:

·                     there were buses and a high volume of traffic on these streets and therefore the introduction of traffic calming measures on two strategic roads would not be appropriate or in keeping with Council policy;

·                     in the interests of transparency and fairness, officers were obliged to rely on official accident records, ie those accidents which had been reported to the police, rather than hearsay evidence.  Road safety and parking were the two issues that generated the most requests for action from residents.  If the official accident reporting was low then it was unlikely that an area would be prioritised.  Additionally, TfL monitored the Council’s road safety and accident reduction records andsome TfL funding provided to Local Authorities had specific performance targets attached to them;

·                     traffic officers had been actively involved in the plans for school expansion, and had taken into account key travel patterns, school travel plans (STPs) and any potential impact of the school expansion programme.  The Council’s travel planners worked closely with schools to ensure STPs were robust;

·                     with regard to the Avanti House school relocation, an independent transport assessment which would include traffic surveys and personal injury accident records and the school’s travel plan would be presented to the council as part of the Planning process.  The transport assessment would include any mitigating measures suggested for consideration.

Petition 4 – Lake View/Dukes Avenue – request for parking controls

An officer stated that the issues highlighted in the petition from the residents of Lake View and Dukes Avenue would be reviewed and reported at the February 2016 meeting of the Panel. 

A Member stated that the local Safer Neighbourhood Teams had been proactive in dealing with the parking and traffic issues experienced by residents in Lake View and Dukes Avenue, and sought guidance from officers regarding alternative solutions, other than inclusion in a CPZ.  An officer advised that he would request the enforcement team to contact the Member to further discuss the matter.

A Member urged the Panel to reconsider the decision it made at its meeting of 2 October 2014 regarding Malvern Gardens and that parking controls there should be implemented as per the original officer recommendation.

The Chair advised that the amendments made to the officer recommendation relating to Malvern Gardens had been carried by a majority of votes.  He proposed a motion that further consideration of this issue be deferred until the February 2016 meeting of the Panel. 

The motion was put to the vote and won.  The Panel agreed by a majority of votes that consideration of the request from the petitioners on Malvern Gardens and Winchester Road be deferred until the February 2016 Panel meeting.

The Panel wished it to be recorded that the decision to defer consideration of this petition was by a majority of votes.  Councillors Kendler, Marikar, Miles and Parekh voted to defer.