The Fields Park Crescent meeting held on the 4th February 2010 was a great success - over 15 people attended from a road with around 40 properties.. All residents in attendance were pleased with the implementation of the Double yellow lines to the dangerous bend on the road, which had resulted in frequent failure for emergency vehicles to progress on the road due nonsensical parking issues.
Continued Parking on dangerous bend post-implementation of double yellow lines.
At the meeting Wilson clarified that the Highways Team had confirmed that they would start enforcement on the road and that communication regarding the implementation of the double yellow lines had not been provided to them - hence the lack of initial enforcement.
"If you recall the introduction of these restrictions were made at the request of the residents via yourself. The complaint was that of dangerous parking and to assist the flow of traffic especially emergency service vehicles. The restrictions became enforceable last week and the Council's Parking Enforcement Contractor have been made aware of the restrictions and will commence enforcement."
Some residents queried whether vehicles parked on the pavement elsewhere would be penalised. Wilson clarified that this would not occur unless complaints were received from residents. Redbridge generally does not penalise for parking on the pavements, due to the narrow width of many of our roads. This brought relief to many local people.
Additional parking bays on Fields Park Crescent.
A local resident - himself an architect - produced a proposal for the removal of some of the excess green verge on the road to facilitate additional parking bays. Wilson conformed there was no budget for the scheme after receiving correspondence from the Highways Team:
"Please be advised that this plan was tabled several years ago. At that time there was insufficient funding within the Highways Budget for such a scheme. The matter is on the work programme but has suffered a similar fate over the last budgets, insufficient funds.
I am able to advised you this is the similar situation for 2010/11."
Wilson suggested the Local NHW produced a constitution and opened a bank account enabling them to apply for Area 5 Committee funding towards the proposed scheme. It was agreed this would ensue. Wilson has forwarded an application form to the Local NHW Coordinator and a template for a constitution. During discussion it was also agreed to scale down the project, as residents from one side of the proposed road reform, were concerned about loss of privacy.
AOB:
A resident asked if the local street lighting could be improved as existing luminosity was poor, he also wanted a number of faulty lights to be repaired. Another resident asked if a new street light could be implemented in an area that had an extremely long gap between lights. Wilson has passed on contact details of the local residents to the Street Lighting team, who have agreed to investigate the concerns.
Residents asked if the road could be turned into a one-way street due to health and safety concerns. Wilson queried the concerns with a Highways Team Officer who provided the following response:
"Anything is possible but not probable. As you are aware we have a matrix for assessing requests for traffic calming/management matters, I have just had a quick check of the accident statistics for the road and there have been none in the last three years, which would immediately put the request as a medium priority, I do not have traffic flows and speeds for the road but looking at its position and length I doubt they would be high which would then put it in a low priority category and unlikely to be funded from the Councils Traffic management budget or by TfL. Any scheme would need Area Committee approval and funding so in the short term I think it is unlikely that we would pursue the request."
This officer failed to recognise the frequent lack of mobility for emergency vehicles. We will take this concern to the Area 5 committee for their response.
Continued Parking on dangerous bend post-implementation of double yellow lines.
At the meeting Wilson clarified that the Highways Team had confirmed that they would start enforcement on the road and that communication regarding the implementation of the double yellow lines had not been provided to them - hence the lack of initial enforcement.
"If you recall the introduction of these restrictions were made at the request of the residents via yourself. The complaint was that of dangerous parking and to assist the flow of traffic especially emergency service vehicles. The restrictions became enforceable last week and the Council's Parking Enforcement Contractor have been made aware of the restrictions and will commence enforcement."
Some residents queried whether vehicles parked on the pavement elsewhere would be penalised. Wilson clarified that this would not occur unless complaints were received from residents. Redbridge generally does not penalise for parking on the pavements, due to the narrow width of many of our roads. This brought relief to many local people.
Additional parking bays on Fields Park Crescent.
A local resident - himself an architect - produced a proposal for the removal of some of the excess green verge on the road to facilitate additional parking bays. Wilson conformed there was no budget for the scheme after receiving correspondence from the Highways Team:
"Please be advised that this plan was tabled several years ago. At that time there was insufficient funding within the Highways Budget for such a scheme. The matter is on the work programme but has suffered a similar fate over the last budgets, insufficient funds.
I am able to advised you this is the similar situation for 2010/11."
Wilson suggested the Local NHW produced a constitution and opened a bank account enabling them to apply for Area 5 Committee funding towards the proposed scheme. It was agreed this would ensue. Wilson has forwarded an application form to the Local NHW Coordinator and a template for a constitution. During discussion it was also agreed to scale down the project, as residents from one side of the proposed road reform, were concerned about loss of privacy.
AOB:
A resident asked if the local street lighting could be improved as existing luminosity was poor, he also wanted a number of faulty lights to be repaired. Another resident asked if a new street light could be implemented in an area that had an extremely long gap between lights. Wilson has passed on contact details of the local residents to the Street Lighting team, who have agreed to investigate the concerns.
Residents asked if the road could be turned into a one-way street due to health and safety concerns. Wilson queried the concerns with a Highways Team Officer who provided the following response:
"Anything is possible but not probable. As you are aware we have a matrix for assessing requests for traffic calming/management matters, I have just had a quick check of the accident statistics for the road and there have been none in the last three years, which would immediately put the request as a medium priority, I do not have traffic flows and speeds for the road but looking at its position and length I doubt they would be high which would then put it in a low priority category and unlikely to be funded from the Councils Traffic management budget or by TfL. Any scheme would need Area Committee approval and funding so in the short term I think it is unlikely that we would pursue the request."
This officer failed to recognise the frequent lack of mobility for emergency vehicles. We will take this concern to the Area 5 committee for their response.
Residents queried the lack of shrub and tree cutting services on their road and asked if more trees could be planted and maintained. It transpires that the grassy verges are unadopted road and catually belong to Redbridge Homes who have funds that could be allocated to tree plantation and maintenance (or even parking bay implementation...I wonder?)
"Our attention has been brought to the grassed areas in Fields Park Crescent and our records indicate that the land is Redbridge Homes.Apparently, some shrub areas in the Crescent have very recently been adopted by Highways but some have not. Most areas that were causing a problem last year, including those areas not adopted, were pruned in October/ November time and would not have regrown over the winter to any extent. We are not aware of any outstanding problems. If you email with exact locations which you are concerned about, we will look into further and get back to you"
I would appreciate if residents could come back to me with specific locations so that I can investigate further. Digital pictures would assist. With regard to planting trees a lead officer from the Trees Department,speaking to another officer in the Parks Department indicated:
"The Mayor Of London Scheme does not cover Fields Park Crescent so I am unable to use these funds to plant trees in this area; however, I would be available to draw up a scheme so that your office can seek funding from the 'Quality of Life' scheme. Alternatively, we could approach Area Committee to request funds to plant trees in this area. I await your advise in this matter.
With regards to Ground Maintenance, I understand that the area in question is outside 10-40, but there are also areas outside 25-27 and 1-11. The query relates to the current state of the grounds and the potential to improve the quality of the three areas."
We will update local residents of any development in any of these subject matters.
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