People power forces rethink over parking in Poole (From Bournemouth Echo)

People power forces rethink over parking in Poole

12:00pm Monday 7th January 2013 in News By Darren Slade, Chief Reporter

PLANS to drastically reduce parking on a major Poole road have been scaled back following an outcry from residents.

Poole council had wanted to remove all parking during the day on the narrowest part of North Road to make it easier for buses to pass each other.

It had also proposed double yellow lines on both sides near the top of the road as well as cycle lanes in both directions.

Wilts and Dorset, which runs buses up to every seven minutes along the route, said it wanted “full removal of on-street parking”. It said this would benefit passengers and improve air quality by cutting the time buses spent waiting to pass each other.

But Parkstone councillor Tony Woodcock said the plans would have meant taking vital parking away from residents at the built-up end of the road.

“These people in these houses have children. They bought houses because they could park their cars and take the kids to school,” he said.

“These people have worked hard all their lives and saved to buy a car to give them freedom to move and then we’re saying you can’t park anywhere.

“Wilts and Dorset are complaining that they can’t pass each other but I think it’s nonsense and all the residents think it’s nonsense.”

The latest plans for North Road – which go before councillors on January 17 – include:

• Removing some parking between Danecourt Road and Ashley Road, but keeping more of it than originally proposed, especially on the downhill side of the road.

• Installing a cycle lane on the uphill side of the road, rather than both sides as earlier proposed.

• Scrapping earlier plans to ban parking in the daytime between Danecourt Road and the Civic Centre.

The measures will be financed from the £18million plan to improve the A35 corridor through the conurbation, which has attracted a £12m government grant.

North Road resident Janet Pethen told the Daily Echo she was “totally against” loss of parking. “At the first meeting, they wanted to ban all parking along this stretch. There’s just nowhere to park. Nobody’s happy about it at all,” she said.

Sian Roff, co-owner of Blue Shutters Guest House, on North Road, said: “We’ve got parking at the front but for our guests, it’s very important. But resident Helen Fox said: “We’re happy about the proposals because with the parking on this side of the road, it’s a nightmare for us to get out of the drive. You can’t see either up or down the road when getting out.”

You say

• Darryl Griffiths, North Road resident: “To me it seems like a waste of money that they didn’t speak to the residents before they put the first scheme in. It seems a lot of money wasted by councillors, planners and residents.”

• Richard Horton, a fellow North Road resident said: “To my mind, we have to slow the traffic down somehow. Removing parking is not going to slow it down, it’s going to speed it up.”

• Debbie Butler said: “It would be a real problem. We wouldn’t have anywhere to park,” said the visitor to North Road. “People park here who work down in Poole because it’s the only place you can park where you don’t have to pay.”