Agenda item

Report of the Director of Transportation and Highways

To consider the above petition, bearing 459 e-signatures, which is being supported by Councillor Bailey, a Cheylesmore Ward Councillor, who has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item along with the petition organiser

The Cabinet Member for City Services considered a report of the Director of Transportation and Highways concerning an e-petition, bearing 459 signature, requesting that the previous layout of the parking bays at the Daventry Road Shopping Centre, be reinstated. The petition was supported by Councillor R Bailey, a Cheylesmore Ward Councillor, who, together with a representative of the Petition Organiser, attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of the petitioners.

The report indicated that, in accordance with the City Council's procedure for dealing with petitions, those relating to road safety were heard by the Cabinet Member for City Services. The Cabinet Member had considered the petition prior to this meeting and requested that the petition was dealt with by letter (determination letter) rather than a formal report being submitted to a meeting, to be able to deal with the matter more efficiently.

Daventry Road was a local distributor road between London Road and Leamington Road and was subject to a 30mph speed limit.  The shopping centre was located on a service road that ran parallel to Daventry Road between Queen Isabel’s Avenue and Quinton Road.  The service road was one-way running from Queen Isabel’s Avenue and Quinton Road.  It was located in the City’s Cheylesmore Ward. A location plan was attached as an Appendix to the report.

The determination letter advised that the changes to the configuration of the parking bays at the shopping centre were introduced on a temporary basis to facilitate social distancing. When social distancing guidance was withdrawn, local consultation would be undertaken to determine whether the temporary layout was made permanent or the previous layout was reinstated.

The cost of road safety measures was funded from the Highways Maintenance and Investment Capital Programme budget through the Local Transport Plan.

The representative of the Petition Organiser informed the Cabinet Member that the current parking layout caused particular problems for disabled people and children getting in and out of vehicles and opening doors into the path of pedestrians and/or on-coming traffic, due to the design of the parking. It had also resulted in a loss of spaces and vehicles were not parking within the marked bays.

Councillor Bailey referred to many adverse comments he had received from residents on this matter. He indicated that the current parking layout encouraged speeding as it provided a clear run for travelling vehicles. There was also an issue for vehicles turning into Quinton Road due to the layout of the parking spaces which were located close to end of the service road which provided little turning space. The street furniture located along the pavement next to the parking bays, made opening car doors very difficult and vans were parking across two spaces which exacerbated the limited number of spaces available further.

Having considered the report and the comments made by Councillor Bailey,  the representative of the Petition Organiser and the officer who presented the report, the Cabinet Member agreed that once social distancing guidance was withdrawn, a local consultation would be undertaken on the future layout of the shopping centre parking bays.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for City Services:

1)  Notes the petitioners’ concerns.

2)  Endorses the actions confirmed by determination letter to the petition organisers, as detailed in paragraph 1.5 of the report.