Agenda item

A period of thirty minutes will be made available for questions to be put by Members of the public to Members of the Cabinet on matters for which the Council has a responsibility or which affect the Borough.

The following questions and answers was received at Full Council:

1.     Question:

“How can it be reasonable that an exception was made for Greenfields, when Ashcombe's situation is at least as bad? Greenfields has unhindered footways to all properties, yet the footways in Ashcombe service just four of the eighteen properties, meaning access to the remaining 14 properties, is only possible by using the road, whether that be forable-bodied pedestrians, parents with pushchairs or residents in wheelchairs.?"

Answer:

“The exemption was based on different style layouts to the roads in question. In Greenfield, the road is bounded by grass with the footway set back. While verge parking in Greenfield is likely to lead to damage to the grass areas, it is unlikely to lead to footway being blocked. This is not the case in Ashcombe. While the pavement bounds directly to the road and a lack of the VFPO will likely lead to the footway being blocked, this will impact any pedestrian who wishes to use the footway.”

2.     Question:

“The blocks of flats on Haymeads and Harwood Hill were initially designated for elderly residents, so no designated parking was provided. After being re-zoned to include both council and private residents, no additional parking was created to accommodate the change. This has led to significant parking issues in our area. With the prohibition of parking on verges or footpaths reducing available spaces, will the council be creating more suitable parking spaces in the area? If this is not the case, what the reasons are for not doing so?”

Answer:

Within Haymead the most verging footway space directly adjacent to the highway forms part of the adopted highway which does not fall under control of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. For the grass verges and pavement areas which form part of the adopted highway it would be for Hertfordshire County Council to consider any extension of the public highway to create additional parking space. Considering any relevant local transport plan policies they have as well as any relevant planning conditions and, of course, budgetary constraints. Two plots of Borough Council owned communal housing land in Haymeads close to the flats have been identified and are being assessed by Borough Council to ascertain if it is viable to convert into parking spaces to increase capacity primarily for tenants.

3.     Question:

“As was always going to be the case the introduction of parking restrictions in Haymeads is already causing issues with no road parking available after 5pm. As mentioned before, this is causing anxiety and stress for neighbours something which the council seem to want to ignore. Who wants to be driving home from work or visiting elsewhere worrying if they are going to be able to park when they get there?

I’d like to ask if anybody, other than Tony Kingsbury, have taken the time to visit Haymeads and looked at the ratio of spaces to properties and looked at what might be able to be done to increase the amount of spaces? Surely there must be options for grass protection grids and adjustment of current hardstands to ease the problem?”

Answer:

Parking services officers have assessed the area before the proposals of parking restrictions were made. However, we do not hold the data on how many vehicles each household owns or has access to, and it would not be readily identifiable if vehicles parked belong to residents or non-residents. The parking restrictions when under consultation did include statutory consultees including Hertfordshire County Council. Conversion of public highway land to include verge-grid systems or hardening of verges with concrete is a matter for Hertfordshire County Council and their relevant budgets as the public's highway authority. Some previous verges in Haymeads have been concreted over since 2009 to include parking capacity namely near numbers 77 to 89 and numbers 11 to 25 as well as Harwood Close near the junction of hayways which led to approximately 16 extra car lengths being created in that area.