REPORT TO PICKMERE PARISH COUNCIL
7th June 2022
AGENDA ITEM 9.5 UPDATE RE LIAISON WITH CEC ON HIGHWAY MATTERS
1. REPORT
1.1 Members will recall that following correspondence with senior members of CEC, and your Chair’s appearance to speak about problems experienced by this Council in securing dialogue with CEC about various highway matters in the parish, an officer contact in CEC’s Transportation Department was provided and your Clerk has had a dialogue by email and telephone with him.
1.2 The current situation regarding the following topics raised with the officer is as follows:
• Your Clerk emailed the Parking Enforcement Team asking that they try again to attend Pickmere lake area on summer weekends, to try to help deal with our visitor parking issues. The team replied that the summer restrictions have been historically enforced and are due to commence once the TRO [Traffic Regulation Order] comes back into date [this is obviously now the case]. The team “does have staff rota’d for this area, also other rural locations that require our service. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee a constant presence but do take into account the weather forecasts.”
• Condition of Hall Lane and School Lane – following your Council’s pressure and that applied by CEC Cllr Parkinson, School Lane has now been the subject of significant repair works, and School Lane is shortly to be the subject of repairs, though not to the same standard as School Lane.
• The sweeping of carriageway edges on Mere Lane (and elsewhere) has recently been carried out.
• The officer will review the faded yellow lines on Park Lane in relation to their repainting.
• In respect of the potential to extend in some way parking restrictions in the village the officer has suggested that the Parish Council might wish to consider its more detailed thoughts on such a possibility, and to put its suggestions to CEC. It is understood that at this stage this would be with the objective of coming to some sort of agreement as to a draft set of proposals, which if considered reasonable by CEC could be the subject of their own and the statutory procedures, when resources become available. It is again emphasised to members that if CEC do take up proposals to extend parking restrictions they follow both their own procedures and the statutory procedure, both of which involve substantial public consultation exercises.
1.3 In the context of this last matter, members will be aware that the recent Neighbourhood Plan survey of parish residents revealed a significant number of residents’ comments suggesting further parking restrictions in the village to try to mitigate summer visitor parking issues. Members are also well aware that such a topic can give rise to considerable local dialogue and discussion. It is considered that in such a context a way forward would be for Council to establish a working group of members who can consider the possibilities and their merits and demerits in more detail, and report back to Council in due course.
1.4 For clarification it is pointed out that such a topic is not relevant to nor appropriate for consideration in the context of the Neighbourhood Plan.
2. RECOMMENDATION
2.1 That the report be noted, and that members consider whether a members’ working group should be established to consider in more detail the merits/demerits of and potential for extending parking restrictions in the village.
Jack Steel
Clerk to the Parish Council