Poole residents: traffic won't slow if council moves on-road parking (From Bournemouth Echo)

Poole residents: traffic won't slow if council moves on-road parking

10:19am Thursday 24th January 2013 in News

RESIDENTS are today making an 11th-hour bid to kill off parking restrictions planned for a major Poole road.

Although the Borough of Poole dropped proposals to ban parking near the foot of North Road, it is pushing ahead with plans to remove most of the parking further up the hill.

But residents of that stretch of the road fear the plans will increase traffic speeds as well as making life difficult for occupants of flats.

They are planning to submit a last-minute petition to cabinet member Cllr Xena Dion, the cabinet member responsible for transport.

The council was responding to requests from Wilts and Dorset, which said its buses were being held up on the route.

North Road resident Deb Smith said: “This is already a fast road. The speed warning sign is ignored all the time. The new measures involve removing the parked cars that act to slow the traffic.

“In other areas the council is paying out to install traffic calming, yet on North Road, also a residential road it has seemingly bowed to pressure from Wilts and Dorset.”

She said there would not be enough parking for residents of the road’s flats. And she said people using new playing fields on North Road would have nowhere to park.

Officers are advising Cllr Dion that “for the most part, properties have sufficient off-road parking”. They say the aim is to encourage more people to use buses between Bournemouth and Poole.