The Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire was in Wilmslow today (Thursday, 22nd November) to see for himself the scale of the problem caused by vehicles parking on Alderley Road.
David Keane was joined by Councillor Rod Menlove, Angela McPake Vice-Chair of Wilmslow Town Council, local resident and retired magistrate John Morley and Assistant Practice Managers at Kenmore Medical Centre Cathy Starkey and Fiona McDermott.
Rod Menlove said "I know that to David, road safety is a priority and so invited him to visit Wilmslow to see first hand the problems caused by obstructive and dangerous parking in Alderley Road and by the lack of police enforcement. This is not a criticism of the local police who have to follow a restricted definition of obstruction and danger. As our elected representative we hoped that David could use independent influence to further our case for more action on these matters."
David Keane assured the local councillors that road safety is one of the priorities in the Police and Crime Plan and he would be contacting the Acting Chief Executive at Cheshire East Council regarding this particular issue.
He said "I want to support the local community so I will be writing to Kath O'Dwyer (Acting Chief Executive at Cheshire East Council) to give my views on the situation and I will speak the local Chief Inspector to see what police resource we have to help deal with it as a local priority.
David added "What I'd like to do is seek some real guidance on the extent of the powers that can apply to the problem. Daily enforcement is never the way to solve the problem but it's a way of helping to get double yellow lines, which has got to be the solution."
Speaking about the parking Fiona McDermott of Kenmore Medical Centre, said "It causes havoc at varies times of the day, particularly at rush hour. We've seen various minor incidents and one lady was knocked over when she tried to cross the road between parked cars. We've also seen road rage.
"Our patients are not very happy, especially those having trouble getting out. It is very frustrating for the elderly."
Local resident John Morley said "There wasn't a problem until the builders of Chapelwood came along and started parking there and everyone else has thought if they can park there we can park there. Essentially it has turned into a car park for people going to the station.
"I have lived here 27 years and never known a subject attract so much interest."
David Keane committed to returning to Wilmslow within the month, saying "I want to get out with the local PCSOs and Community Sergeant and actively look at the problem so I have confidence they are using their powers properly and we all understand what's in those powers and what's not."
Esther McVey said "I asked Cheshire East in the Spring to treat the parking issue on Alderley Road as one of safety, to allow it be to addressed ahead of the parking review in Wilmslow. Although they declined to do that, I am pleased that David Keane has agreed with my view and I am hopeful we can now get both a short and long term solution for the issue as a matter of priority."
Rod Menlove concluded "We very much appreciated David taking time to visit Wilmslow and to join in the discussion and consider our concerns. We are hopeful that the actions he is going to undertake will generate steps in the right direction."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Surely “.. obstructive and dangerous parking in Alderley Road and ..lack of enforcement..” Is a criticism of local Law enforcement ? why else is Keane here seeking “confidence they are using their powers”..as “enforcement is .. a way of helping to get double yellow lines, which has got to be the solution."… Please dont further insult residents with such obfuscation .. This is evidence CEC and PCC cant sort out a serious problem efficiently and effectively .. time for a change .. sign the petition !!
If the Police and Crime Commissioner for the area needs to "seek some real guidance" on how to address the issue of dangerous, obstructive parking then we're really up the creek.
As for the remark that "Daily enforcement is never the way to solve the problem" this doesn't seem to be an issue when they're slapping tickets on cars that are safely parked, but have exceeded their parking time.
Lets hope that finally... whenever that is... the Councillor for Wilmslow East will insist that yellow lines are also painted on the side of the road that is in his Ward, otherwise the parkers will just go over the to other side.
Any news of the Parking Survey, promised two years ago and only carried out last month?
Asked him to speak to police on his radio. Didn’t hear him. Busy ticketing a car outside Rex cinema. Obviously far more important to CEC.
Just means that Mums with prams or disabled in wheelchairs can’t get thro’, but what do our Council, or our Police do? Answers perhaps to our MP.
Does she care in practice? Who is it that is failing us? They take our money, yet do nothing.
Dozens of streets affected and let’s not forget bin collection days - more pedestrian hazards.
Poor show all round, yet again.
Of course surveys buy more time in solving a problem that has no solution until additional long term parking is provided. Our representatives have been telling us since time a multi storey car park is to be built on Broadway Meadow. In the meantime we have had a Local Plan approved that will further stress the infrastructure because our representatives consistently chase further wealth creation for the town without ever considering the consequences.
I visit Portugal. What strikes me is that infrastructure precedes development. Why not here? We desperately need to change how things are done in Cheshire East and post this photograph to history.
So the Cheshire PCC now tries to assist and the first three comments on the thread are negative from those who are always negative. Shameful but no surprise.
Just a point of information for Mr N Jones on the assumption that he is referring to me, I decided not to stand for re-election and any suggestion of deselection is wrong as he well knows.
Quote ‘If everything was as simple as suggested—-‘
We have been trying to explore every possible avenue to achieve a solution and to have these efforts by local interests dismissed off hand is insulting.
You clearly have not absorbed the message that the PCC is going to make efforts on behalf of us all, including you and all the other negative nay sayers. Perhaps you would like to harangue the others in the article who are being positive, if you have the nerve.
If I may I think the point that residents are trying to make is that a parking review was promised by the Council in its High Level Parking Strategy dated 2017.
On the back of this the “In Touch” Conservative leaflet dated August 2017, distributed to residents living in Wilmslow, stated that £60,000 was being allocated for the survey, and related work, in the Town to identify the worst hit areas and provide the data the Council needed to gain funding for more off street parking and identify possible sites for new private car parks.
Residents are perhaps understandably frustrated that almost 18 months on no tangible progress appears to have been made on the promises given, in addition to which, the Leader of the Council was seemingly unaware of the parking issues in Wilmslow, or, that these promises had been made.
The consequence of the delay in the survey has potentially contributed to the parking on Alderley Road which could, and some would say should, be removed by Enforcement Officers of the Council, based on the principles that it states they will follow in the same Cheshire East Council High Level Parking Strategy.
Perhaps when making public declarations and promises in the future it would be prudent for members of the Conservative Party to ensure that they fulfill them rather than criticise residents for taking them to task when they do not.
Councillor Toni Fox - Independent
Dean Row Ward - Wilmslow
We at Residents of Wilmslow met with Cllr Bailey last month to raise Wilmslow’s parking problem with her and to suggest possible solutions. All of it fell on deaf ears though as she dismissed our concerns and said nothing would be done till the parking review of Wilmslow was completed.
In Autumn 2017, you circulated a leaflet to the town entitled “IN TOUCH: Wilmslow East Conservatives”, with the headline: “Parking Review To Address Local Issues”. It stated
“Conservative run Cheshire East has therefore announced that it will conduct a strategic review of parking. £60,000 will be allocated for the survey and related work in Wilmslow that will identify the worst hit areas and provide the data CEC needs to gain funding for more off-street parking. CEC will also work to identify possible sites for new private car parks”.
On 7th March 2018, this web site reported:
“A spokesperson for Cheshire East Council said: "In November last year we began a parking review for Wilmslow to consider the current provision for both on-street and off-street parking. Some surveys were carried out in November and more work on this project will be done in the coming weeks”.
However, this review wasn’t actually completed until 17th September 2018, over 11 months after it supposedly started. No one has seen this report though, nor its recommendations and no date has been set to present it to anyone either.
Part of the process for preparing this report is to discuss it with Wilmslow Town Council. However, this has not happened and Martin Watkins, Chairman of WTC said publicly on Monday that he has repeatedly written to Rachel Bailey (the Conservative Leader of Cheshire East) over the Alderley Road parking but hasn’t even got a response from her.
I would therefore ask you to tell the people of Wilmslow:
- Why did it take a year for the parking survey to be completed?
- When will we receive the outcome of this parking survey?
- What possible sites have CEC identified for new private car parks as mentioned in your
newsletter of Autumn 2017?
Even David Keane, the PPC is telling you what needs doing on Alderley Road though “Daily enforcement is never the way to solve the problem but it's a way of helping to get double yellow lines, which has got to be the solution."
- So what action has CEC taken to install yellow lines on Alderley Road?
- When can we expect the yellow lines to be in place?
Your comment that "If everything was as simple as suggested and not surrounded by regulations then this would have been easy to resolve." sounds to me like another lame excuse for CEC's willful inaction and ineptitude over this matter. Yellow lines have sprung up quickly around the town in the past (including outside your own house), so why is this different? Why Alderley Road is such an overly regulated stretch of road that means it cannot be yellow lined? Perhaps you can actually tell us what is going on?
However, this PR stunt today is fooling no one. The town wants action over this problem, not photo opportunities.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow, Wilmslow Town Council
For too long they've been batting the problem back and forward in a half-witted failure to accept responsibility.
We have now seen representatives of both sides, from top to bottom, turn up on Alderley Road to look at the problem and still nothing happens.
Well actually something DOES happen. As Fiona McDermott of Kenmore Medical Centre reports, a lady was knocked over whilst trying to cross the road between parked cars. That stretch of road is used by elderly and disabled people as well as school children on a daily basis.
Local residents must be sick and tired of the sound of blaring car horns signalling the daily incidents and "near-misses" on this stretch of road.
If ever evidence were needed of the complete inability of CE Council to act quickly in response to clear and urgent need it is right here on Alderley Road.
Mr Keane's remarks were actually quite positive, unlike those of the Chief Inspector who addressed the Town Council meeting. The proof of the pudding, however...
Seems to be a lot of debate and wasted time posing for pictures . We have all seen the problem for ourselves . Whats the hold up ?
As Cllr Mark Goldsmith has stated above, Residents of Wilmslow sat down with Cllr Bailey, the Leader of CEC, and high on our agenda was the very real daily problem facing Wilmslow's,residents,that of uncaring, indiscriminate & obstructive out of town commuter parking on numerous roads & streets, non more so than along Alderley Road. The Leader was more than happy to fall back on "Wilmslow the parking survey" that has supposedly been completed by end September.
This surely cannot be the same survey that we were assured was being undertaken by the then Deputy Leader,Cllr David Brown, and last years "promised" and much propagandised "survey"as publicised in the Conservative's In Touch indoctrination sheet.
So how many surveys does this council need to undertake before it can reach some sort of conclusion, never mind a positive solution?
It is reported to RoW that some parkers are only too happy to leave their cars in front of peoples' homes for two or more weeks whilst they go on holiday via the airport - Buckingham Road, Gravel Lane are just two "airport" alternative parking lots.
RoW clearly told Cllr Bailey that the immediate answer to Alderley Road was two fold - 1) place No Waiting signs along this stretch (similar signs that the police use when a hazard occurs) and 2) seek alternative sites for the displaced vehicles. Her prompt & numerous retorts was to place our thoughts on the survey! I made the mistake of suggesting, in frustration at her volatile inaction, that she should "plead" with the police to take some action - "Plead, plead?" she retorted, "O.K. maybe that was the wrong word", I said not offering an alternative like "reason" or "appeal". But that dhort exchange typifies the CE response and resort to inaction. Also, RoW suggested to her that simply painting yellow lines along this or any other road does not, will not, solve Wilmslow's problem, all this does is remove parking from road A to road B and on it goes "You must look at a long term solution and RoW is able to offer such a solution." Again she said let the survey have your views. RoW was prepared to offer even more ideas but upon receiving the very same response..... what's the point, we thought.
The big problem with so many politicians is that they hear but do not listen....and then blame the voter for not listening.
I always believed true, real leadership was actually leading from the front, not this faux leadership we now see all too clearly at Cheshire East Council, where the leader is only too ready to hide behind yet another "parking solution" that has been in the offering for over two years.
"Wilmslow parking survey" - The problem is all to obvious for all to see & the solution(s) fairly straightforward & within CEC's remit
We don't need another survey to continue to obfuscate & delay but we do want immediate action to-day, not in another six, eight months or more, if ever.
Undoubtedly Cheshire East Council's leadership and its submissive fellow party councillors proves the point that it is time for change, big change. Roll on 2nd May 2019.
Rod Menlove sits on CE Council as the ward representative. He talks about following due process in much the same way that Nero talked about violins whilst Rome was ablaze.
Of David Keanes visit he says......"We are hopeful that the actions he is going to undertake will generate steps in the right direction."
This problem started years ago with the dangerous parking of Chapelwood contractor vans. It has morphed into a much bigger problem due entirely to the fact that the authorities have been hopeful that the actions they might undertake would generate steps in the right direction!
Do you suggest that Mr Menlove not follow due process? What power do you think he has otherwise?
1. Via C.E.C. with a mantra - 'No obstructive Alderley Road Parking means no obstructive Alderley Road Parking' or we'll wag our finger.
2. Via the rest of us - managing a real value for money & precision kerbside application - taking advantage of an extended B & Q Black Friday special offer for yellow paint & masking paint.
Rule 145. You MUST NOT drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency.
It it is illegal (MUST NOT) to drive on a pavement and yet our police do next to nothing about it. This illegal driving coupled with lack of enforcement can sometimes force pedestrians to use the road instead.
It is time to turn the tables. What we need is a coordinated group of people to walk in the road at peak times instead of using the pavements. It isn't illegal to walk in the road, the highway code uses the terminology 'should' and not 'must'. Forcing drivers to crawl along at walking pace might send a clear message that enough is enough.
The parking disease is spreading down Knutsford Road, a major entry and exit to Wilmslow centre, and causing road congestion and danger as vehicles use it both ways, at legal speeds, and need to pass each other and often cannot, particularly when the oncoming vehicle is an HGV or builders lorry, as is often the case. Some roads in the town have extended single yellow line restrictions, why is the privilege denied to other more needy roads that carry more traffic. Perhaps a Council rep lives along or nearby and put some effort in on users behalf. Currently such effort or action is significantly absent.
I'm suggesting that "officials" on all sides of this issue are shirking their responsibility and trying to blame due process.
If this really is due process, then clearly it is flawed and needs changing as it is failing the urgent safety needs of the community.
I’m excited that long overdue change is on the way. Isn’t politics exciting?
'Alderley First' set the standard Wilmslow needs to follow to rid ourselves of the current incumbents costly catalogue of incompetence. ..( with documented exception from our independent representatives !)
Agreed, the highway code is not the law. However, all 'MUST' regulations are supported by one or more laws and you can be prosecuted under these. e.g. Rule 145 about driving on a pavement is backed up by the following laws:
HA 1835 sect 72 - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Will4/5-6/50/section/72
RTA 1988 sect 34 - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/34
Unfortunately the existing legislation is worthless when the police can't be bothered to enforce it.
https://amzn.to/2P2Tl5v
Bizarre
Perhaps if we knew, we could campaign for CEC to give us the land and we could crowd find the building.
£60,000 spent on a survey would have been a good start for the building we all know is necessary.
The police can act swiftly and there is no requirement for By-Laws, Regulation, surveys or consultation; a concentrated burst of ticketing (aided perhaps by tow-away to remove obstructors...) would yield an immediate change of attitide by these inconsiderate parkers - if they mount the pavement to park most of them ARE breaking the Law and can/should be booked - the SHORT SHARP SHOCK (inconvenience and dosh out of their pockets has the desired sobering effect). Meanwhile, congestion as this is all being prosecuted will also slow everything down in the town centre - a safety win win and a very public demonstartion of what is being done.
This action, in the main, will just shift the problem to somewhere else in the locality but the Alderley Road arterial thoroughfare and safe pedestrain access will be freed up.
The above is in the hands of the police, it just need WILL and LEADERSHIP.
The root cause of all this however is fairly and squarely down to CEC (surprise....!). Untrammelled commercial expansion from successive itterations of 'rates bandits' plundering 'Wilmslow' land and property assets has led to an ill thought through change to what was once a nice dormitary town (or maybe village, depends on your age).
No consideration, just rape and pillage for spondulicks to see out personal aims (and no doubt considerable gains in some cases) and grandiose schemes.
Creating jobs was a great excuse yet in reality Wilmslow didn't need jobs and much of this present problem with parking is due to commuters into Wilmslow. It's still going on, there's more, and worse, to come.
If we want control over what goes on in the local environment we need representation that has local issues at heart championing local wishes and demands, independant councillors will help balance out the politically biased and morally corrupt band of brigands that currently ignore the electorate - at their peril.
KICK 'EM OUT big time in 2109
Here is a link to a similar car park you describe. The cost was £1.6M but much of this could be funded by the extra income from parking charges it would generate.
Cheshire East just spent £1 million investigating the conduct of three of its senior staff, the report for which they refuse to publish. Cheshire East has money, they just never want to spend it on Wilmslow and our Conservative Councillors never, ever challenge this neglect. All we get is empty promises from then that they never deliver on.
Time for change.
https://bit.ly/2QtXa8K
I firmly believe that the Wilmslow Ward Councillors should resign... NOW. there are no excuses. We do not need you, you do nothing to represent us.
Whats the bet its kicked into 2019, nothing will be done before the Christmas break.
The CEC Cllrs system for stalling is clearly duplicating the 5 stage process of their mentor Sir Humphrey Appleby; Stage One: Humphrey will say that the administration is in its early months and there's an awful lot of other things to get on with… Stage Two: If you persist past Stage One, he'll say that he quite appreciates the intention, something certainly ought to be done -- but is this the right way to achieve it?... Stage Three: If you’re still undeterred he will shift his ground from how I do it to when I do it, i.e. 'Concillor, this is not the time, for all sorts of reasons.'… Stage Four: Lots of Councillor’s settle for Stage Three. But if not, he will then say that the policy has run into difficulties -- technical, political and/or legal. (Legal difficulties are best because they can be made totally incomprehensible and can go on for ever.)… Stage Five: Finally, because the first four stages have taken up to three years, the last stage is to say that 'we're getting rather near to the run-up to the next general election -- so we can't be sure of getting the policy through'… Sir Humph also using the 'Three Varieties of CEC Silence', as a last resort if completely cornered: 1 The silence when they do not want to tell you the facts: Discreet Silence… 2 The silence when they do not intend to take any action: Stubborn Silence… 3 The silence when you catch them out and they haven't a leg to stand on. They imply that they could vindicate themselves completely if only they were free to tell all, but they are too honourable to do so: Courageous Silence.
Reality strangely represented by fiction !! When’s that election !
http://www.alderleyedge.com/news/article/18410/new-parking-restrictions-on-residential-roads
Quote from the original article:
"David Keane committed to returning to Wilmslow within the month, saying "I want to get out with the local PCSOs and Community Sergeant and actively look at the problem so I have confidence they are using their powers properly and we all understand what's in those powers and what's not."
Could any of the three Ward Councillors please tell us if this "second coming" came to pass?
If it did, what was the outcome (and why no publicity opportunities)?
If it did not happen, what steps have you taken, on our behalf, to bring the PCC to account for a broken promise?