This evening I spent at the Council's Traffic Management Panel trying to get two issues resolved for Katesgrove residents, both concerning parking. (Another interesting issue arose regarding Tesco at Crown Street - but more of that later).
One concerns the long-running saga of the yellow lines at Collis Street which residents were not consulted on and merely saw them appearing (we were never told when the consultation took place, if it did at all). After the Council initially refused, I think I received a promise of a site visit at which Council officers and residents can discuss with us a sensible way forward.
(This was met with a hail of abuse from Labour Cllr Page who was chairing the meeting - an increasingly embittered man).
Then the matter was discussed of the tenants of 8 flats on South Street - owned by a Housing Association as part of a mixed and relatively recent development. We had been appoached by a resident who does not own a car but needed visitors' permits so that builders could come and make essential repairs to their flat, along with some of the residents' neighbours.
This was clearly too difficult for the Council, who protested that there was no room - despite at least 20 parking bays on South Street with potential to conversion for shared residents'/short-stay use during the daytime. I went along and spoke on residents' behalf.
The reply from the Deputy Leader of the Council (not to mention ward councillor for over 30 years for this area until ward boundary changes in 2004)?
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That there was an Important Review taking place and that there was 'no point shelling out new permits for people'; and
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That builders 'can apply for traders' permits' or park for 2 hours the other side of Sidmouth Street and cart their materials to and fro.
(Incidentally, the review did not delay the progress of a raft of parking measures that were brought forward and agreed, amended or otherwise by the Panel at the very same meeting)
It's cloth-eared attitudes and this very failure to listen that cost Cllr Page and his Labour colleagues control of the Council and will result in them losing more seats in 2010. Tonight was as clear an example as any. Clearly they will never learn...
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