Wallisdown & Winton West Forum – 27th July 2013 NOTES WRITTEN FOR REFERENCE BY MICHAEL CHIZLETT (IN ATTENDANCE), CORRECTIONS PENDING THIS IS A SUMMARY OF THE STATEMENTS MADE AT THE FORUM MEETING AND IS NOT A WORD FOR WORD TRANSCRIPT. Speakers: Ray Willis Chairman of Acres Road and Turbary Park Avenue Residents Association (ACT) and Gary Powell (Parking and Traffic Manager Bournemouth Borough Council), Chris Kayly (Friends of Slades Farm) and Chorine Lovell (petitioning for a pedestrian crossing on Columbia Road). Also in attendance Councillor Susan Phillips.
Ray Willis – Chairman, Acres Road & Turbury Park Avenue Residents Association (ACT) Since its formation ACT has been supportive of other local community groups, notably Moore Avenue Park Group at West Howe, with its fun days, and the Friends of Slades Farm. We’ve made good progress on issues such as double yellow lines at Acres Road and tarmacking of land at the rear of local shops for parking to allay resident’s concerns with safe access to and from Acres Road. Signs have also been put up near Fernheath Road to resolve resident’s issues with addresses. There has also been an on-going issue with mould in some tenancies; this is still on-going with Council surveyors to resolve. During the past year ACT has also encouraged the formation of the Turbary Common Heath Watch which it took under its umbrella until it became independent just recently. In recent weeks ACT has supported local parents Corinne and Steve Lovell in their campaign for a safe crossing across Columbia Road. This has been a very successful year for ACT with a celebration day at the Turbary Centre just recently and the many functions held at the centre with the support of Adrian Rendall and the health team there. We are also celebrating that, at last, Turbary Park Avenue has some quality road surfacing and we’ve had our Puffin Crossing installed receiving many positive responses on this project. This campaign has involved many local residents, friends and neighbours who knocked on doors under took a study on the road and went to a meeting at the Town Hall with a petition with over 500 signatories and with great
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Wallisdown & Winton West Forum – 27/07/13 support from local shops, community groups, the Turbary Centre Staff and supportive letters from the officers of Age UK. Since our formation following the very successful Royal Wedding Street Party we have had great support from Bill Hill from Housing Landlord Services, local Councillor Nicola Greene and patron Connor Burns MP. ACT has now merged with Wallisdown and Winton West Forum. Arrangements were originally made to transfer our supply of brick-a-brack and books etc in our store to the newly formed Heathwatch our present funds however will remain here in the Wallidown and Winton West Forum in support of future activities. P.C. Lee Tharme from the Community Police Team has sent his apologies for not being able to attend the meeting today.
Gary Powell - Parking & Traffic Manager, Bournemouth Borough Council We issue parking tickets not to make money but to enforce parking restrictions. It is illegal to park on the pavement if it causes an obstruction. If it is causing an obstruction then it is a Police matter. If there are double yellow lines or a single yellow line at that location our Civil Enforcement Officers can enforce against the driver. Civil Enforcement Officers can enforce a traffic regulation order or a yellow line. If there isn’t a traffic regulation order or a yellow line then we can’t enforce unless the car is parked at a dropped curb. We can introduce a traffic regulation order to ban parking on the pavement in an area, the issue that you have there is where do you start and stop? Where you do you also need signs to be in place wherever you do that. Some towns and cities have a Local Act which makes it illegal to park on the pavements throughout the town; getting a similar Act would not likely be allowed by the Department for Transport. Double yellow lines are enforceable upon drivers parked on grass verges, however it is very difficult to enforce against drivers parked on grass verges where there are no yellow lines. We can however use our powers if they are causing a nuisance in terms of ripping up the verge for instance. In the old days you had traffic wardens and the police and the traffic wardens were employed by the police, the police were saying that they just don’t have the resources to manage parking the way that people want it managed. The Government introduced some legislation in 1991 that actually let the London authorities apply for powers to take on parking enforcement, which was then rolled out to other authorities. Bournemouth was one of the first Local Authorities outside London to take on the powers. They recognised quite early on that if the Police haven’t got the resources to do this then it’s something that we should try to manage, we’re responsible for introducing the restrictions, the yellow lines and the parking bays, so why don’t we take it on. So in 2001 Bournemouth it passed from the Police to us and the traffic wardens became parking attendants. Then the law changed again under Page 2 of 9
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Wallisdown & Winton West Forum – 27/07/13 the Traffic Management Act 2004, this introduced Civic Parking Enforcement rather than decriminalized. Now our Traffic Wardens, which became Parking Attendants, are called Civil Enforcement Officers. It also introduced new elements: Penalty Charge Notices were given a higher and lower contravention which government felt would be more acceptable to the general public when they get issued a penalty notice. In the old days we just had one fine which was £60, this introduced a higher and lower level, so for instance if you park on a yellow line you’ll get a £70 fine reduced to £35, if you park in a parking bay and you overstay your time you’ll get a £50 fine. Going back to the aims of the service, it’s not there to make money, the main aim of our parking services in terms of on-street is about managing the kerb space. Generally yellow lines are there to help congestion and for safety, recently we’ve been trying to make our bus journey’s a lot more reliable. They’re on corners because it’s dangerous for people to park on corners, even though it’s in the Highway Code sometimes we have to put down yellow lines as well. And it’s for things like access for things like loading for shops, we need people to not park in a loading bay because local shops need it for their business. We need people to not park in disabled bays because disabled people need to park. So that’s the aim of the service really it’s about making people respect the restrictions that have been put in place. In terms of responsibilities there are a few things that we can do under main legislation, but most of what we do is through a Traffic Regulation Order. A Traffic Regulation Order is the local order that we make as a council which says that a Yellow line will go from here to here and a parking bay will go from here to here. When we do that it takes a long time to introduce, as Councillor Phillips will tell you it is a frustratingly long time, but there is process we have to go through, a legislative process and a democratic process. We advertise what we’re going to do in the paper, we invite people to come have a look at that restriction, and they can come to the town hall or they can go to their local library usually and look online and see what we’re doing and make comments. Some people will want a yellow line and some people won’t and we always say to people if you are supportive of it then please write in and support it because that’s very important to us, we can use that. When we’ve got 10 objections but you’ve got a petition for 200 people supporting it then what’s going to win? So once we’ve gone through that process of advertising then we look at the objections and sit down with our cabinet member, our portfolio holder, and we go through them. And where we’ve had no objections and nobody is too worried about it then we carry on and we do it. Where we have objections and comments we look at those and sometimes we make recommendations, generally we will make recommendations as an officer but we’ll ask what the cabinet member what they think. And where we’ve had quite a few objections we’ll sit down with ward members and we’ll ask ‘Is this something that is really supported by the community or is it not?” We then look to introduce it. We then have to advertise it again to say that we’re doing it and then organise it. So that’s the sort of legislative and democratic process we have to go through. Once it has been agreed the cabinet member signs a piece of paper saying that it has been agreed. It can be called in by a local member if they disagree but hopefully we’ll have done the ground work to come to an agreement. However there’s always people that don’t like it and there’s always people that want it so we have to try and balance that.
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So we can enforce anything that has been introduced by a traffic regulation and parking offences as well. There are a few other things we can do, we can do Hackney Carriage but that’s introduced in a different way. We can enforce pedestrian crossings as well, and zigzags, it is actually one of the offences that have to remain an offence that the police can deal with as well as us. It is the only one that I am aware of that the police can do as well because it is quite a severe offence. If you were to park on a zigzag next to a pedestrian crossing and we issue a PCN and the police came along and issue an FPN then the FPN would take precedence and would cancel out so that you don’t get done twice but it is the only contravention that has not been completely decriminalised. The other ones are bus stops because they don’t need a traffic regulation order anymore but they are in the regulations in the main Act. The bus stops have to be correctly marked and sometimes we have issues where the marking and the sign aren’t quite viable so we have to look at that and see what we can do. We’ve also got a couple of special powers that we have under the Traffic Management Act and we’ve mentioned them before which is dropped curbs. We can now enforce dropped curbs; we don’t need it to be signed in anyway or advertised. There are some exemptions to that, and we can also do double parking as well, but there are also some exemptions and the exemptions are if you have permission, if somebody parks outside your house, your drive, you might want to park outside your own drive and you don’t want us coming along and giving you a ticket for doing that. So we don’t routinely enforce that, we only do it if we get a complaint and it usually has to be a complaint from the resident. The only other one is where you’ve got pedestrian dropped curbs where you’ve got a crossing for disabled persons etc. If somebody parked in front of one of those then we can enforce it. Obviously that is dependent on resources but we do our best. In general terms our operations number is a direct line number. Margaret Leslie is our operations manager, she’s very good, she’s very happy to get on the phone and talk to people and if you’ve got a complaint, if you’ve got someone parked outside your drive then we’ll do our best and we’ll get someone there as soon as we can. We’ve got a couple of officers that go round on motorbikes, not every day, usually one each day, and so if they can they’ll get there as soon as they can and if it’s obstruction; it has to be obstructing, if somebody is making your life a little bit difficult but you can probably get in and out then we generally don’t enforce; but if it’s obstruction then we will enforce. The only other thing with that is that it’s not moving the vehicle it may not help you there and then if you’ve got an issue, if it’s a serious issue, then it’s only the police that can help you because it’s obstruction, but we can enforce that. Obviously if it’s someone delivering or if it’s the fire or the police or the ambulance or if it’s building people then we wouldn’t enforce those for dropped curbs. We do often get photographs but we have to observe it ourselves. What we can’t do. Our enforcement officers can’t direct traffic. That‘s one of the big differences between what they could do before and what can’t do now. They used to be able to direct traffic, they can’t actually tell you to move on, they will ask you, if a police officer observed you doing something you shouldn’t do they have the power to tell you to go away. Our guys can’t but they will engage, they will talk to you, if you’re
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Wallisdown & Winton West Forum – 27/07/13 sat in a vehicle and you’re on yellow lines they’ll come and talk to you and say can you move along for x,y, and z reasons. We can’t do moving traffic offences, by that I mean things like no right turns or any traffic order which directs you to a direction of traffic. The only exemption to that is bus lanes we do have the power to do bus lanes which we do at Coach house place, which is being enforced by CCTV cameras, and people still go through there. Before we put in the cameras, which was FebruaryMarch, we were having something like 114 an hour go through there. Since we put in the cameras we still get around 20 people a day, so it has been a success but I still can’t understand why 20 people a day keep going through there. Going back to what can’t we can’t do; obstruction and dangerous parking, we quite often get calls saying that someone is parked very dangerously on a corner and as I’ve said if there’s no traffic order and there’s no yellow line then there’s nothing we can do about it I’m afraid.
Q&A Resident: In London they are putting white lines on the curbs so that you can park on the curbs, is that something that might be considered? Would that help with people with buggies coming through? Gary Powell: It could be that is in effect permission to park so it’s positively signed that you can do that. It depends on the location and on the issue. If you’re going to do it generally you lower the pavement. Resident: Can bus companies expand the area where there bus stop is without any permission? Do they not need to let residents know or anything like that? Even though that restricts parking? Gary Powell: The Council can, yes. The reason for making them longer often is to enable buses to get in. The bus companies come to us and say that there is an issue and we can do that. I would say that it needs to be the length that it needs to be for that service. But if it’s too long then we can look in to making it smaller. We have a CCTV camera car we can use for certain circumstances we don’t use it for everything because of the regulations around it but where we have double yellow lines or single yellow lines or no loading signs and outside schools we use it for that. We do use it for schools for quite a lot. But if it is a double yellow line then just give us a call. Resident: The current speed limit on Boundary Road is 40mph what stops that being turned down to a 30mph? Generally when we look at speed limits we consider what the road is used for what type of road it is. We consider whether there is access off of the road, whether it is a residential road how motorists would perceive the road. Boundary Road there is no direct frontings so in general you would probably look at the road and say that it is a 40mph road. There are different circumstances, if there are accidents and they need to be recorded accidents, if there are a large amount of accidents on the road then we would consider whether or not for safety reasons whether or not to reduce the Page 5 of 9
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Wallisdown & Winton West Forum – 27/07/13 speed limit. But I think on the part you’re talking about, it’s a distributor road, I know that there are pedestrians crossing but because it’s a distributor road that’s why historically it’s a 40. As I said it’s also how the driver perceives the road you could bring the level down signing to 30 but it’s a question of whether the police would support that because if it doesn’t look like a 30 people won’t drive a 30. Speed cameras are only generally only looked at when we have accidents, we get criticised obviously when we put them in and people say we’re just trying to make money. I’ll find out what the average speeds are and the history of the area.
Chris Kayly – Treasurer, Slades Farm Festival of Sport and Talent It’s been a fortnight since the festival. The stated purposes of the festival were: 1. Bring community groups and individuals together to celebrate their talent 2. To publicize the clubs activities and services in the ward locally 3. Promote Slades Farm for the great resource it is for nature skills and education and recreation and leisure 4. To raise money to assist the progress of some of the items for the Council’s Slades Farm Strategic Plan So to tell you whether we achieved those we’ll go through them one by one:
Bring Community Groups and Individuals Together to Celebrate their Talent I think it certainly did that every day of the three days. On the Friday evening there was a really nice friendly creative atmosphere at the battle of the bands and we have to thank Amanda for the work she did for doing that and she had a lot of help from local individuals. On the Saturday it was really too hot for much field sport but some 200 young people really enjoyed the skate park and they rose over £70 which is earmarked for improvement to the skate park when they can raise some more money and Friends of Slades Farm are in a position to match it. Our co-operation with the managers of the velodrome showed what could be done for the mutual benefit when we work together. Often the Velodrome is seen as a separate thing in Slades Farm and I think we’ve begun to draw them in. On the Sunday local talent drew appreciative small audiences on the Ensbury and Talbot stages. Also on the Sunday the small band of dedicated helpers changed lives on the velodrome, they enabled blind and otherwise disabled persons to try cycling with thrilling results. We shall do this again.
To Publicize the Clubs Activities and Services Many local charities and scout groups had free pitches where they could raise awareness and money. I hope they did well.
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To Promote Slades Farm We had visitors from outside the locality and several expressed their surprise that such a green and lively open space existed between Wallisdown and Columbia Road. Several local residents expressed their thanks that the music stopped early and no rubbish was left on site. One even had a letter published in the Echo.
To Raise Money Financially we didn’t do so well, the very hot whether reduced attendance and this affected our income. Our aim had been to cover costs from fees for pitches and the fair despite so many of them being free and then to be able to use the profit from the programmes and raffle to boost the Friends of Slades Farm bank balance however on the Saturday one caterer left losing us two days fees and the fair negotiated a reduction in their fee because fewer people attended. This amounted to £500 of lost income. We also had at the last minute extra expenses from the two stages so income from the raffle and programmes has gone to pay expenses. We are still awaiting some payments and it seems we will make a loss of nearly £100. However just recently we’ve been offered a donation that will cover the loss and give us a small profit. We’ve learnt some lessons for future events, just 2 weeks before the festival we had expected about 30 helpers over the three days, nearly 20 of these had been promised by 2 organisations and none turned up. If there is another festival we need to have more individual helpers commit to their offers of assistance. A small band of helpers had to work very hard to make this happen. I must mention and thank Darren Wayne and Neil for their willingness to work long hours over the three days.
Q&A with Councillors Resident: Are there any dog wardens in this area? Slades Farm is getting worse and worse. Councillor Phillips: Yes we do have a dog warden, there is one dog warden, and if you think of the whole of Bournemouth as an area that’s what it covers. However if you’d like to highlight the weak areas I’d be happy to take that down. I will phone the dog warden and have a chat. Resident: How often are the bins emptied? Councillor Phillips: I will have a word with Margaret Leslie because she works with the team and there are other things within that department. I’ll need the address of any bins that aren’t being emptied so we can keep an eye on that. Resident: Can the veledrome be better sign posted from the road? Councillor Phillips: Eventually it will be.
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Wallisdown & Winton West Forum – 27/07/13 Resident: What does the Councillor think about recent movement in the Council when it comes to recording in the Council chamber? Councillor Phillips: Public questions are fully transcripted. I refer you to Kevin Neale from Democratic Services, the leader of the Council and the Mayor. I did make a very big in-road in the Council chamber when people are presenting petitions, you used to stand with your back to the mayor with no lectern and now there is a lectern and a tanoy system and you are facing the chamber.
Dorset Police Update Lee Tharme did send his apologies for not being able to attend. All this information is available on the Dorset Police Website, and that about a scheme called the Community Speed Watch Scheme. It has had a little bit of a negative response but Dorset Police wanted to make it clear that it allows members of the public to monitor motorists driving behaviour and pass on details to the Police has been successfully piloted in West Dorset. Residents in Warmwell near Dorchester who took part in the scheme were trained to use a camera device which was able to record the registration numbers of speeding vehicles before passing this information to the Police. Many of those volunteers had raised the issue of speeding as a priority safety concern in their neighbourhoods. It has come up today in terms of Boundary Road. The Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Whiting said that the community speed watch scheme is a voluntary activity already in place in other parts of the country including Dorset. Dorset Police works with local people at their request so that they are able to monitor speed and driving behaviour in their areas and tell us about their findings. The Force will then take action, including if such behaviour is persistent their own enforcement activity which may lead to prosecution. Any suggestion that the Community Speed Watch Scheme is either a direct replacement for speed cameras or that it involves spying is entirely wrong. Scheme volunteers do not act in a covert manner and in fact wear high visibility clothing while participating. He says he is aware of reports in the media which may give members of the public a misleading impression of the scheme and he understood that this would be clarified in due course. Lee was saying that if you think that this might be of interest for use in our area that we would need to let them know. There is a cost outlay which I believe is about ÂŁ300 but Lee thinks that they have got some that they might be able to lend us.
Chorine Lovell – Local Resident, Petitioning for Pedestrian Crossing at Columbia Road My name is Chorine Lovell, I live in Priestly Road, and I am in the process of presenting a petition to Bournemouth Council for traffic cowling measures and a pedestrian crossing at my end of Columbia Road. My daughter was involved in an accident on this stretch of road and I felt like I should do something about this before another more serious accident happens. This stretch of road is used daily by local residents and school children to cross to go to shops and attend three local schools.
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Wallisdown & Winton West Forum – 27/07/13 I’ve joined this forum and am in the process of forming a local action group to improve my neighbourhood.
References
Advice Guide from Citizen’s Advice, ‘Parking tickets issued by the Council’, (http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_cars_and_oth er_vehicles_e/consumer_driving_and_parking_e/consumer_parking_tickets_e /parking_tickets_on_public_land_where_the_council_is_responsible.htm) Daily Echo, ‘Motorbike hit my daughter as we crossed road… please help us get school crossing installed’, Tuesday 25th June 2013, (http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/districts/bournemouth/10505708.M otorbike_hit_my_daughter_as_we_crossed_road____please_help_us_get_sc hool_crossing_installed/?ref=rss) Daily Echo, ‘Community thanks Ray for residents association service’, Tuesday 23rd July 2013, (http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/districts/bournemouth/10565222.C ommunity_thanks_Ray_for_residents_association_service/) Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust Website, (http://www.dorsethealthcare.nhs.uk/WS-DorsetHealthCare/Pages/services/adult-mental-health/community-mental-healthteams-bp-sed.htm) Daily Echo, ‘Sport music and fun for all the family at Slades Farm Festival’, (http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/districts/bournemouth/10548617.S port__music_and_fun_for_all_the_family_at_Slades_Farm_Festival/) Dorset Police Website, ‘Community Speed Watch schemes in Dorset – update’, (http://www.dorset.police.uk/default.aspx?page=4692) Dorset Police Website, ‘Community Speed Watch comes to Dorset’, (http://www.dorset.police.uk/Default.aspx?page=6994) Daily Echo, ‘Dorset Community Speed Watch Appeal’, Friday 9 th August 2013, (http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/10602742.Dorset_Community_Speed_Wa tch_appeal/)
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