Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

To consider the above petition, bearing 18 signatures, which has been submitted by Councillor Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Cabinet Member considered report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) concerning a petition bearing 18 signatures which was submitted by Councillor G Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who attended the meeting and spoke in support of the petitioners. The report had been requested by Councillor Williams following the receipt of the determination letter. The petitioners were requesting that the Council urgently addressed health and safety concerns on Norman Place Road, in particular the resurfacing of pavements, speeding issues and resolving dangerous parking along Norman Place Road and outside shops near to the island of Brownshill Green Road, to make it safer to cross. Petitioners Roberta Gray and Chris Kane also attended the meeting and outlined their concerns.

The report indicated that Norman Place Road was a residential road and a bus route and had a number of shops including a Co-op located in the vicinity of its roundabout junction with Brownshill Green Road. A review of the personal recorded injury collision history of Norman Place Road showed that in the last 3 years (for the time period up to 30 November 2016) no injury collisions had been recorded.

The Cabinet Member had considered the petition prior to this meeting and in response requested that the issue was dealt with by a determination letter rather than a formal report being submitted to a meeting, to be able to deal with the matter more efficiently. A copy of the determination letter was set out at an appendix to the report. The letter advised of the actions proposed and approved in response to each of the issues raised as follows:

i)  Resurfacing of footways – following an assessment of the current condition of the footways and taking into consideration the usage and condition when compared with similar footways across the city, the site was to be held on the City Council’s forward programme list and its condition would continue to be monitored; it would be scored against all other similar sites Citywide. If the footways on Norman Place Road receive a priority score, they would be included in a future maintenance treatment programme, budget permitting.

ii)  Speed reduction measures – due to budgetary constraints requests for road safety schemes were prioritised utilising recorded personal injury collision data and as no injury collisions had been recorded in the last 3 years, Norman Place Road did not meet the criteria for a local safety scheme. Contact details were provided should residents wish to get involved in the Community Speed Watch initiative.

iii)  Parking restrictions - due to budgetary constraints requests for waiting restrictions were prioritised, as no injury collisions had been recorded in the last 3 years it was not proposed currently to install any new restrictions.

iv)  Pedestrian facilities - the roundabout junction of Norman Place Road and Brownshill Green Road would be added to the pedestrian dropped kerb request list for consideration for inclusion in a future programme. When the location was prioritised for works to be undertaken, measures to address inconsiderate parking at these facilities would also be investigated.

After the determination letter was issued, the process in action i) above was undertaken and following the annual scheme development process, a section of Norman Place Road footways had reached a priority score and it was the Council’s intention to renew them during the financial year 2017/18. Due the high cost of this process the scheme would be completed over a two year period. In 2017/18 the south side section of Norman Place Road from house number 55 to house number 109 would be renewed. It was then intended, budget permitting, to renew from house number 109 to Duncroft Avenue (South side) in 2018/19.

The implementation of the recommended proposals was dependent on funding and prioritisation with competing locations; therefore the implementation of the recommendations was on-going.

Councillor Williams requested that the footways outside the shops also be repaired, he drew attention to incidents were buses had been speeding and requested improved parking facilities. Roberta Gray informed of the problems encountered when crossing the road and outlined the issues caused by parked vehicles, requesting the installation of posts to prevent parking on the pavement. Chris Kane detailed his concerns about crossing the road, indicating that the height of the vegetation on the roundabout was causing visibility issues for both drivers and pedestrians suggesting the introduction of a pedestrian crossing.

Councillor Innes, Cabinet Member drew attention to the reducing financial resources available to the Council for highway works. She informed that the request for waiting restrictions at the roundabout would be investigated over the summer.

RESOLVED that the petitioners concerns be noted and it be endorsed that the actions confirmed by determination letter to the petition spokesperson are undertaken.