Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services), which sets out the results of the informal consultation, the statutory consultation and the recommended course of action.

Report of the Corporate Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) on the introduction of resident permit scheme and double yellow lines in Lambs Close, Cuffley.

The report noted that an existing resident permit scheme has been operating within Lambs Close since 2000.  When parking enforcement responsibility passed to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council in 2005.  Lambs Close has been patrolled as with all other public highway by the authorised enforcement officers on behalf of Welwyn Hatfield.  The sale of permits has been managed by Northaw and Cuffley Parish Council.  The Parish Council requested that Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (WHBC) takes on the responsibility for the sales management of a permit scheme, as in the same way WHBC run all other public highway permit schemes.  The current permits issued by the Parish Council have been handwritten permits, which in the past have been open to a small amount of misuse by way of the expiry date being altered with a pen.  WHBC since 2017/18 have issued all resident parking permits as paperless and checked by the enforcement team by vehicle’s number plate meaning the permit expiry date cannot be altered.

In order to bring the management of the permit scheme in line with all other resident permit schemes managed by WHBC, a new traffic regulation needs to be made to set the charges for resident permits as well as designate it with a zone code. Within the new Order, it will allow for the first time the residents who live within this scheme the opportunity to purchase visitor parking vouchers. Currently, any visitors to residents have restricted or no parking within the road during the operational hours of 11am to 1pm Monday to Friday. This has the potential to cause a level of isolation for those who could be partially housebound.

In February 2019 Parking Services consulted all residents within Lambs Close to offer the opportunity to make changes to the enforcement days and hours whilst the Traffic Regulation Order required was being designed. Residents were surveyed to see if any supported change of days or times to the current permit bays. Eighteen responses were received, with no majority in favour of making any changes to the days and times. During the consultation, several respondents highlighted the sets of six parking bays on the west of the road which are currently separated by short sections of single yellow lines. It was proposed when creating a new Traffic Regulation Order to recreate the parking bays within their current start to finish limits but removing the yellow lines between the bays to increase the parking scope to eight parked vehicles in that section of the road. This would give better parking provision outside of parking restriction hours. On previous visits by Parking Services Officers, the permit bays were often observed as underused during the restriction period.

As part of the remedial work to create the Order, it has been identified that the single yellow lines still left in situ from 2000 are in sections of the road where it is not suitable for parking. This related to the width of the road in those places which only allow parking on one side, otherwise a road obstruction could be caused.

The report set out the results of the informal consultation, the statutory consultation and the recommended course of action. A total of 82 residents had been consulted. One objection had been received and this was shown within this report as Appendix A.

It was noted that the Council can amend proposals once advertised, as long as they make the scheme less restrictive. This could be done without having to re-advertise the Traffic Regulation Order.

            RESOLVED

That the Panel consider the objection received in 4.1 and in particular the issues raised in Section 15 around equalities and diversity and having considered all the detailed issues in this report including any proposed mitigating actions, recommends to Cabinet to proceed with the amended proposals (Appendix C) and the creation of the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for all the reasons set out in this report.