Minutes:
During the Open Forum the following questions/comments were submitted:
(a) Further to Minute No 66(a) of the meeting held on 19 March 2009, Mr P. James requested an update to his question submitted on that date to the Area Committee with regard to consideration of funding for a deterrent in order to stop the problem of cars parking and blocking the pavements on Sandy Lane/Lambshear Lane when parents droped off and collected their children from St Gergory’s and Lydiate Primary schools. Mr James had been unable to obtain a response from the Assistant Director Technical Services Transportation and Spatial Planning and had noted a decline in police presence to tackle this issue.
Mr Johnston, Technical Services representative had written to Mr James outlining the current situation regarding the issue and how the Council were tackling it. Problems associated with St Gregory’s and Lydiate Primary, and to a lesser extent St Thomas Primary, had recently been brought to Sefton Council’s attention via a number of different sources. Dealing with parking problems around schools was notoriously difficult, and the first course of action had to be to work with the schools in developing School Travel Plans, which identified how the pupils and teachers travelled to school, and to persuade them to reduce their dependency on private motorised vehicles. This was a major culture change for parents and whilst Sefton Council had had very good results in certain schools, others, such as St Gregory’s, had been much slower in achieving a reduction in school traffic. Work with each of the three schools’ School Travel Plans would continue, but it was recognised that physical works to control or dissuade school run traffic would be needed in the short term.
As part of Sefton’s Local Safety Scheme programme, the route linking Northway and Southport Road, i.e. Kenyons Lane and Lambshear Lane, had been identified as having a large number of speed related road traffic collisions, which had resulted in recorded personal injuries. Design work was currently taking place to develop speed reducing features along the route, with a view to implementing a scheme in the new financial year. It was envisaged that the speed reducing features would include items such as pedestrian refuges, enhanced signs and carriageway markings, vehicle activated signs which detect vehicle speeds and flashed an appropriate message, 20 mph School Zones and associated waiting restrictions. It was anticipated that the draft design would be completed shortly, and would be consulted upon with Councillors and residents in May/June. This would enable the scheme to be rolled out during the school summer holidays. The whole impetus of the Local Safety Scheme was to reduce the large number of recorded injury collisions along the route, but an added bonus of the scheme was that the Council would also be able to introduce a number of parking restrictions or features, which would assist in reducing congestion and improving safety for LydiatePrimary school children.
Funding of the Local Safety Scheme would only allow the Council to carry out works on the identified route, i.e Lambshear Lane and Kenyons Lane, but it was recognised that the obstructive/dangerous parking on Sandy Lane also needed to be addressed. In this respect, officers from the Neighbourhoods and Investment Programmes Department were currently in discussion with Councillors regarding the provision of shrubs along the northeasterly side of Sandy Lane (recreation ground side) to physically prevent parking on the grass verge. If carried out, this may simply move the parking into adjoining roads, such as Blackhurst Road and Nursery Road, which was why careful consideration was being given to this proposal.
RESOLVED:
That the Planning and Economic Development Director be requested to submit an update regarding parking issues on Lambshear Lane/Sandy Lane to the next Sefton East Parishes Area Committee.
(b) Mr B.Doran submitted asked if the Local Authority was aware of the decision taken by Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority, who operated Sefton Meadows Recycling Centre, to restrict access to half the site due to health and safety concerns. Mr Doran indicated that one half of the site was open to the public whilst the other half of the site was in operation for compacting skips; and that this had resulted in traffic reversing through the site; that this had lead to the unavailability of many of the skips due to the design/layout of the site causing drivers to become disorientated and choosing the first available skips rather than those around the rear and resulting in drivers blocking access to available skips at the rear. The situation also resulted in severe congestion on Sefton Lane. Mr Doran requested the Committee to investigate (a) what the ‘health and safety concerns’ were which had resulted in this situation; (b) why this concern had not been raised during the redesign of the site; and (c) if Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority could be requested to ensure recycling assistants helped to direct the flow of traffic to avoid this situation.
Ian Williams, Committee Administrator, had written to Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority, who operated the site and the Traffic Services Manager with a request that he respond to Mr Doran directly and copy a response to himself to be presented to the Committee for information.
RESOLVED:
That Ian Williams, Committee Administrator, write to the Chief Executive of Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority and request him attend the next Sefton East Parishes Area Committee to discuss the issues of the Sefton Meadows recycling centre.
(c) Mr G. Harris, Clerk to Aintree Village Parish Council, had submitted a request to the Area Committee to: (a) note that Aintree Village Council had a zero tolerance to illegal advertising on the highway in its area, and (b) press Merseyside Police to allocate resources to support Sefton Council’s officers when they had to remove large ‘A’ boards in the Parish.
Mr J. McConkey, Network Manager at Sefton Council, had written to Mr Harris in response to his questions as follows:
“Network Management had worked very closely in the past with Aintree Village Parish Council on improving the environment by the removal of illegal signs and ‘A’ boards. The Parish Council had been very helpful in identifying problem areas, monitoring them and providing positive feedback to assist Enforcement Officers. This close liaison is something I would like to continue as we seek to improve areas together. I’m sure Elected Members would know that it was Sefton’s Policy to enforce the Highways Act 1980 without exception within the limitations of the resources available. Regular efforts were made to remove illegal ‘A’ boards from the highway across the borough and it was very helpful to get assistance from local people to help us to target our resources where local people felt they would be of most benefit. We would also target fly posting but we could only use the Highways Act when the poster was fixed to a Highway structure such as a guardrail, lamp column or tree, for example.
On many occasions, individual ‘A’ Boards or fly posters were removed by our contractor but when we planned to remove a large number of ‘A’ boards in one operation, we called on the assistance of Merseyside Police who assisted in ensuring there was no breach of the peace in what could be a very fraught situation. Such operations occurred on a regular but ad hoc basis to prevent offenders from becoming accustomed to regular operations at specific times. If any Elected Members or members of the public would like to tell me about any specific areas of concern, I could arrange for Enforcement Officers investigate. The team could be contacted via the call centre on 0845 145 0845, 01704 533133 and 0151 922 4040 or by e mail to network@sefton.gov.uk
RESOLVED:
That the Assistant Director Neighbourhoods and Investment Programmes Team liaise with the Network Manager to ensure enforcement of A board removal.