Hello
The parking problems on Canowie Rd, Manor Park and St Oswalds Rd have now become so dangerous that we are being subjected to physically threatening behaviour.
Bristol CC have been more than made aware of the escalating problems but we keep being fobbed off with “We’re looking at the issues and will get back to you – keep an eye on our website” delaying replies.
This was from BCC in Nov 2014;
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20 Nov 2014 03:14 AM PST
“The six months review of the Redland and Cotham North schemes will begin on or around 5th January 2015 and will run for a period of four weeks.
In terms of overall timescales, this will depend to an extent on the number and nature of the responses that we receive, but our aim is to establish a way forward by the end of March 2015.
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Some cards were put through our letterboxes and NOTHING since has happened.
Unfortunately the Council’s continual avoidance has now created a real danger to the health and safety of local residents.
I was very concerned and upset to hear about two separate instances of threatening behaviour to two of my neighbours (both women) during this past week alone.
This was aggression from people who are not local residents but were parking on Canowie Rd anti-socially and then becoming verbally and physically abusive.
1. One involved the motorist shouting and being so abusive to my neighbour that her two children became frightened.
2. The other involved the motorist actually revving their car and driving it up to press physically against the legs of my neighbour.
Think about that – someone is actually driving a one ton car up against a defenceless human being and trying to shove them out of the way or knock them over.
Only the sight of a mobile phone with a warning of a call to the police made the bullying motorist finally stop.
These are just two examples of the level of intimidation we are now being subjected to.
This is what your ignoring and prevaricating has led to – our lives being put in harm’s way.
Does the Council care? If so, DO SOMETHING.
Examples of anti-social and illegal parking this last single week alone
My wife and I at 17 Canowie Rd had a dilapidated garage and gate and so we spent a significant sum of our savings on having them repaired so that we could use off-street parking.
But now we get people parking in front of our garage so that we can’t use it.
This photo was taken this morning, Sunday 4 Oct 2015.
Despite a polite sign on the gate, the car was parked in front and we can’t use the garage because of the angle we need to drive in/out.
This is a typical every day event;
We are living under threat of aggression on a daily basis – I cannot fathom why the Council is not taking the situation seriously with the gravity it desperately deserves.
The ill feeling that Bristol CC has allowed to build up has now reached such a degree that I will not be surprised to hear of actual physical harm.
I find it deeply disturbing and unbelievable that I find myself in the position of having to write such a sentence, but that is the reality.
Your avoidance of tackling the issue has left some people thinking that they must look after themselves as no-one else will and so they might take the law into their own hands.
I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen but, from what I have been witnessing build up, I see no other outcome.
If I do hear of anyone being harmed, I will ensure that they have a copy of this email so that they can take any action that may be necessary.
I will also make available any other notifications that have been sent to BCC warning of the escalating dangers as we are being left to fend for ourselves.
By way of example, I attach a copy of my email of 03.02.2015.
May we please have;
- a statement on the Council’s reaction to the threat of physical abuse to local residents and what action will be taken to protect us, and
- what recourse of action the Council will assist my wife and me with for accessing our garage without daily obstruction.
I look forward to a meaningful response advising of real and proper action being taken.
Thank you
Raymond and Jane Kelly
Could not agree more. The parking during the day is now totally awful. We have two young children and have stopped having friends with children round during the day who need to drive as they cannot park.
ReplyDeleteI've just circled around the area for 30 minutes looking for a space.
Many emails to the council but no clear answer the last I heard was that they had decided the new extended roads but weren'tready to announce it yet. It cant come soon enough in my opinion.
PS keep up the blog. Wonder if its worth putting flyers through again to try and persuade as many people as possible to pester the council.
This was the last I heard from Bristol CC in response to an email at the end of September....
ReplyDelete"........we will be proposing extensions to both the Cotham North and Redland schemes as part of the review. We are currently working on the proposed parking design on individual roads within these extensions; once this is complete we will meet with ward members to discuss the proposals before running a consultation with residents of the affected streets to get thoughts and feedback on the design. I apologise for the length of time this process is taking; it is a large piece of work being completed alongside a busy workload of other scheme’s reviews and new scheme builds. Thank you for your patience, and please be assured that we will be in touch ASAP with further details."
Its sounds hopeful......just seems to be taking ages!
I suspect the problem the Council are having is that the Residents opinions on the matter are split.
ReplyDeleteThere are residents like the Kellys who have off-street parking - an RPZ would help these people as bays would be marked out that prevent parking across a dipped curb.
Then there are residents such as myself who park on-street - noting that the parking in the evening is, in my experience, the most difficult time we can surmise that it is the Residents cars that are the problem. The Councils original proposal suggested removing ~25% of the car parking spaces by marking bays on one side of the street only (and IMO 25% sounds ambitiously low). So an RPZ would effectively make it harder for residents such as myself the park due to the same number of cars but fewer spaces.
When it comes to the antisocial behaviour this is inexcusable, but for the reasons above it is entirely possible that an RPZ could exacerbate this problem as spaces become even more limited. For this and the above reasons I can understand the Councils dilemma.
I understand that attached to the original proposal was a statement about limiting the number of passes per household. This could be the way forward, particularly with student houses that may have up to 5 or 6 cars, but only if this reduces the number of cars by the suggested 25%.
In any case - a difficult problem that I am sure will leave some residents happy and others unhappy.