The long-awaited Wilmslow parking review is moving forward, albeit at a much slower pace than residents and local councillors would like.
Last year Cheshire East commissioned a review to gather evidence and an understanding of the parking situation in Wilmslow. As a result of which 47 individual measures were recommended to ensure that parking capacity supports the long-term viability of Wilmslow.
In January, Cheshire East Council launched a public consultation, inviting local residents and those who work in the townto have their say on the proposals put forward by the Council to help resolve the parking problems in Wilmslow.
However, having heard very little since then regarding the parking review I contacted Cheshire East Council and local councillors for an update.
Councillor Brian Roberts, Portfolio holder with responsibilities for parking said: "We would like to thank everyone who took part in this consultation. The results have now been analysed and the proposal reviewed in light of the representations received.
"An updated draft approach is being discussed and we expect to publish the consultation report and action plan in early September."
Councillor David Jefferay, Ward Councillor for Wilmslow East, said "It is quite a few months since the parking survey was carried out and it does seem to be taking an inordinate amount of time for the results to be published. We, the CEC Councillors, have not yet seen a draft report either. However, that does not mean that nothing is happening.
"Since May, together with representatives from Wilmslow Town Council, we have had some very constructive meetings with senior officers from Cheshire East and they are making some good progress.
"The discussions at the meetings have been based around three main agenda items; publication of the parking survey results, addressing the issues in the centre of the town (in particular Alderley Road), and increasing overall parking capacity.
"Regarding the consultation report, as Cllr Roberts' statement indicates, we are expecting publication in early September.
"On the Alderley Road situation, we have managed to secure funding and schemes for Traffic Orders (TROs) have been drafted so we are expecting statutory consultation to commence in the next month. We are hoping that those unsightly cones will be redundant by Christmas but it is very dependent on the results of the statutory consultation and, of course, the weather. Both of which are out of our control."
He added "Regarding increasing overall capacity, as with any business, capital expenditure needs to be justified so the officers are working on feasibility and the business case for a new car park. We have a big challenge ahead of us in making the case and getting agreement from the relevant stakeholders by February for inclusion in next year's budget but that is our aspiration.
"On all the above matters, the process is slow, there are a lot of hoops to jump through and, for the new car park, we are not talking small sums of money. However, we are making progress."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The problem will only get worse as more office space is created with no attention to parking. Planning applications which talk about use of public transport are deluded. The developers must be made to fund suitable parking arrangements using some of the lucrative rents received. The length of time taken for the review shows how little priority is being given to this serious safety related problem by our councillors.
Driving on the pavement has been illegal since 1835, but parking on the pavement is not (except London), despite drivers needing to drive on the pavement to park there.
The police could do something about it but I have seen them drive on the pavements to park too. When the police are breaking the law who can police the police?
I believe that now Cheshire East is Labour run we have as much chance of getting the remaining roads attended to as planting fog !
I did say before the last local elections be careful what you wish for.
It takes around 6 months to get yellow lines installed because there is a legal process to go through. This should have started last August when Alderley Road became critical, but the previous Conservative councillors never started it.
Therefore, your new Residents of Wilmslow councillors have had to:
a) Secure the funding (it costs around £5,000).
b) Liaise with CE Highways to prioritise this work.
c) Get Alderley Road, Bedells Lane and Knutsford Road inspected for the new restrictions
and discuss / refine them with Highways.
d) Get internal sign off, so the process can start for the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).
This TRO process will start later this month and is set by government. As councillors, we cannot rush it because it would compromise the legal process and therefore its validity. Ultimately, parking fines can be challenged in court, so the correct process must be followed to ensure they can be enforced. This can take 3 months depending on the scale of objections. Finally, we must book a crew to put all the yellow lines down, which is also weather dependent in November/ December.
Next month the Wilmslow Parking Review should be finalised and published, which will show the proposed parking restrictions in the rest of the town. This was promised for last Christmas by the Conservatives, so we have again inherited another severely delayed project that was promised but never delivered.
Finally, we have also started the process to build a new long-term car park in Wilmslow. This may cost £1.5m and take around 3 years to deliver, so it is not a quick fix. We need to secure the funding (not easy given the Conservative council left us with an £11m annual overspend) and obtain planning permission. However, CE are now hiring a project manager to oversee all of this, so demonstrating their commitment to making it happen.
We have also included the Wilmslow Town Council leader in all of this to ensure they are fully aware of our progress. Something else that never happened before.
Therefore, we share everyone’s frustration at the speed of all this, but after 10 years of doing almost nothing about the towns parking problems, we cannot fix them overnight. Consequently, we ask that you bear with us for another month until our work behind the scenes starts to filter through into actions you can see.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Cheshire East & Wilmslow Town Councils
The fact that our elected representatives of whatever hue can't have double yellow lines painted on Alderley Road since the problem parking started more than 12 months ago says it all. If they can't meet the needs of the people who elect them in this time, then what purpose do they serve?
I believe the "unsightly cones" are a private initiative and nothing to do with the council. It just happens that they work, and it just happens that nobody from the council has sought to remove them, although I'm sure their presence breaks one of more of the council's "rules".
To me this story just highlights what a joke local government is in this country. If it truly existed to serve the needs of local people, this problem would have been solved many months ago, and we all know what the obvious solution is.
I have no sympathy for those trying to balance the budget. I am more interested in where every year almost £2M clear profit from providing parking services in Cheshire East ends up. According to the Traffic Act such profit should be used to provide off street parking unless the council considers it is unnecessary or undesirable. To argue that this money is better spent continually filling in potholes at exorbitant cost is a criminal misuse of public funds.
Providing a multi-storey carpark with affordable charges will do more to satisfy residents, shoppers, businesses, visitors and commuters alike, than a can of yellow paint. What is more, CE can afford it if it looks at reducing costs and increasing efficiencies elsewhere.
Richard you are right, a multi-storey car park is of course the obvious answer but there will have to be feasibility studies carried out by Cheshire East before we even start down that road.
Cllr Iain Macfarlane
Residents of Wilmslow
I really surprised to hear that it is going to take so long, after all before the last election it seemed that our Conservative representatives had almost done the job:
April 2019:
http://bit.ly/2Kt2aH0
In December 2018 we were told that it would be "six months before any lining and signing" would commence.
http://bit.ly/2MeK9OK
Oh well...
Now that RoW councillors along with our Independent Group partners and allied with our new joint-leadership with the Labour group, can now "examine the books". It is clearly seen that what the Conservative leadership of this council was telling us can be classed simply as "porkies". They had made no positive steps to alleviating the situation.
Thankfully, Wilmslow's new team of the four Residents of Wilmslow CEC councillors along with our four Wilmslow TC councillors is making great strides toward physical solutions to the issue, including yellow lines at hazardous points, hopefully enabling multi-storey car parks, newly resourced enforcement teams along with other suggested possibilities. At the same time, we are not ignoring the other areas of concern to our town, we are looking to tackle these in the near future. Unfortunately, the local Conservative former members & their leadership have left us with huge infrastructure areas to try to remedy.
RoW is determined to make a big difference to our town which is part of our commitment to our voters in supporting the changes at the ballot boxes.
With regards to the other areas mentioned (Lacey Green, Bourne Street etc), no work had been done on them other than the options prepared for the consultation (see the map at https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/car_parks_and_parking/parking-consultations/wilmslow-parking-review.aspx) so to say work was underway to get the yellow lines down was not correct and, in fact, there is significant opposition amongst officers to putting them down until there is somewhere else for the cars to go so it was never going to happen in the short term.
Which begs the question - what happened to Wlm's annual parking revenues under the Conservative administration?
Very little work needed.......
More than once I have retrieved this cone from bushes nearby, or near the Fulshaw Cross, returning it to its proper place on the verge.
Why cannot the police enforce the Highway Code when car drivers flout the law.
When we have plenty of car parking spaces in town what then? Sorry - but selfish parking will not just disappear.
People will park anywhere they like just to save £1 per day. If money is to be spent on new car parks then the parked cars that are a nuisance to the residents of Wilmslow will have to be 'persuaded' [=forced] to pay and go and park in them. There needs to be a procedure whereby residents and their visitors can park in their own road outside their own home but visitors to the town cannot. Ideas anyone?
As I’ve said previously - a shortage of car parking is one issue. Leaving your car for as long as you wish, wherever you want and regardless of the effect on the roads, cycle lanes, driveways and pavements of the people who live locally is a completely separate issue. We are now at the point where it is ok to park somewhere if there are no yellow lines to say you cannot and sod the rest of you who don’t like it!
I think you would do an excellent job as Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner !
Better than the current incumbent .. remember the inactivity hollow promises, bluster and obfuscation in November last year with Keane promising to investigate and return in a month…
http://www.wilmslow.co.uk/news/article/18350/police--crime-commissioner-called-to-action-over-alderley-road-parking-problems
Still waiting !!
The process for installing yellow lines is set by the Department for Transport. It has nothing to do with Cheshire East. We must follow government instructions and they stipulate we allow months to ensue the public are informed and can voice any objections. It is the same process all councils have to use and getting the government to change it just for Wilmslow is not a realistic proposition.
Additionally, it is not just a short stretch of road. It also covers Alderley Road, Bedells Lane and Knutsford Road too.
Sheila
Provided there is still access for pedestrians to use the pavement, then it is not an offence to park on the kerb. It is within London, but not the rest of the country.
The grey car mentioned can park on the grass because there are no legal reasons to stop them. If we "just painted a few yellow lines" as suggested, they would be unenforceable, so cars could carry on parking there. It is the legal process that takes the time, not the road painting.
The issue is this should have started in November 2018, when Conservative councillors had their photos taken with the Police and Crime Commissioner about the problem on Alderley Road. However, they didn't, so we had to start it as new councillors in June 2019.
The lines are definitely coming and we understand your frustration, but the delay rests firmly with the previous councillors. We are now following government procedure to fix this problem, while informing the public about the situation. Therefore, I think it unfair and unwarranted to label us as "Muppets" for doing this.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
I think it's fair to say that people have lost confidence in "Due Process" whether it be within Local or National Government.
The fact of the matter is that this issue has been discussed and debated on here for years now and you will remember that there were concerns voiced about the very real threat to persons and property arising out of the obstructive parking on Alderley Road. It was only the intervention of person (or persons) unknown putting down a dozen or so cones that removed that threat, otherwise Rome would still be burning to the sound of violins.
I think it's generally accepted that the former Conservative-led council did absolutely nothing to accelerate a solution and indeed the patronising photo-opportunity enjoyed by the PCC and local Conservative Councillors (as mentioned by Nick Jones) will stick long in the craw.
I guess the answer is to provide a solution and then work at ensuring that the whole process is more transparent, lean and fit for purpose than has been the case.
On several roads in Wilmslow they appear to have taken root and are 'breeding like rabitts', with no Police interest.
Why are we allowing miscreants to avoid Justice?
Putting unauthorised cones out is a Fixed Penalty Notice offence, with a £100 fine.
The problem is who do you issue it to? People don’t tend to put the cones out when a police officer or traffic warden is around to spot them.
I don’t think MANY will agree with you that these cones are an obstruction. If there was a referendum on the matter I bet the result would be at least 52/48 in FAVOUR! Any cone that prevents cars being abandoned for the day - sorry ‘parked sensibly’ - has got to be a better alternative. Your comment is conclusively blown out of the water when you say they are an obstruction and the police should remove them when previously the police DIDN’T consider a line of vehicles interfering with the free flow of traffic to be an obstruction and did nothing. As it has turned out these cones have shown to everyone who was sick to death of the traffic flow interruption by the Coach & Four how a simple and quick solution is possible and just how our local council is woefully inadequate in addressing our needs in certain matters.
So I have to ask WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?
On one hand ROW are up in arms about supermarket planning infringements and on the other, they are supporting illegal obstruction on the highway and hiding the identity of the culprit.
ROW have effectively given the green light for lawbreaking and for cones to appear all over Wilmslow. Cars have been damaged with vigilante behaviour. As tempers flare, this situation is likely escalate beyond damaged cars and highway obstruction unless councillors and CEC come out clearly in support of the rule of law.
ROW have made their point with their cones. Now it’s time for them to go.
I park in Wilmslow at least twice a week for one reason or another. I pay on average £4 per week or £200 per year. This is equivalent to an extra 10% on my Council Tax. So for the privilege of parking in Wilmslow town centre I pay 10% more than Sandbach residents on my annual tax bill. If I am daft enough to use the short stay carpark near the leisure centre then it puts me up to £300 per year disadvantaged.
If you look at Bramhall in the Stockport local authority parking fees are at least half those in Wilmslow.
Combining lack of off road parking with exhorbitant prices only encourages avoidance behaviour by would be visitors and commuters alike.
Now who has allowed this to happen?
Answer - a CE council with a Conservative majority and a Portfolio Holder for Highways, thankfully now removed. RoW are working hard to turn this tanker round but while this parking situation provides CE with £2M every year to spend elsewhere in the Borough the incentive for CE to react positively is unlikely in the short term.
RoW will continue to redress this shortage of off road parking but it starts with an allocation of funds within the upcoming budgets. This alone will allow Wilmslow and it's residents and it's visitors the fair deal they deserve.
ROW are actively encouraging the reduction of parking places. It’s no good painting double yellows everywhere without more spaces being made available. Reducing off road parking whilst providing no alternative will drive people to park in residential areas and result in more conflict and more pavement and verge obstruction.
Painting the town yellow will drive shoppers away and commuters into residential areas.
Once again, you are willfully misrepresenting RoW on this issue. You are also not informing people you are a Lib Dem councillor for the town, despite being asked specifically to do this at the last full town council meeting you attended in June.
For the record (again):
a) I do not categorically know who has put the cones out.
b) RoW does not condone putting out cones.
c) Putting out cones is not a criminal matter though as it is a parking offence. Parking offenses were decriminalised by the Road Traffic Act 1991. Therefore, accusing us of "law breaking" over this, when it isn't a law breaking action is factually wrong and defamatory.
d) If you think putting out cones is a similar to building a major supermarket in a residential area, then please speak to those living next to Lidl and ask them if they think the same.
We want to keep people informed about the progress in these matters and to encourage a dialogue between residents and their councillors. It is therefore disappointing that as a Lib Dem councillor you just want to use it to peddle your lies.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
RJW; it is not Cheshire East who pop up here to “fart about” with In Bloom, although I can see where you are coming from. There are some faded-bloom ex-Councillors involved, who can’t quite grasp that they were sussed out and chucked out. The rest of the In Bloom volunteers seem to work tirelessly, without seeking the photo-op vanity thing.
Unfortunately the legacy of the last regime at CEC is proving difficult to unpick; Mendacity was rife.
Not happy with discouraging shoppers in the day time CE are after the evening visitors to make sure they think twice about frequenting our town centre to enjoy themselves.
CE Highways officers forced through increased charges and restrictions before the local elections on 02 May sure in the knowledge that the Conservatives were on a hiding to nothing. They also knew that incoming independent councillors would not have stood for it.
This mentality and downward slide is hard to reverse but I for one am happy that we have RoW on the case determined to change things for the better.
The key word here is COULD.
So have your say to turn this into a MUST and a WILL by contacting to OUR MP [YOURS too!] whose contact details are at the link:
https://www.esthermcvey.com/contact
There is no problem installing a residents only regime where housholders park in their road for an annual fee ( used to Police the system ) and then purchase vouchers for the use of their visitors - it's common practice! All the Council have to do is abide by the rules to ensure it's all legal, which of course, might take a little while.
It is widely recognised in planning and transport planning disciplines that availability of more parking influences journey choices in favour of the car.
I would much rather the parking fee income finance funding for improving the rail station, measures to restrict traffic through the town centre and the subsidising of quality bus services.