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Recently our council wrote to all the residents in our 2-year old street saying that our parking was dangerous and they might have to "take enforcement measures" if it was to continue. But hold on a minute though... isn't this the same council that approved such crazy road plans in the first place?! I realise the intention of the road layout is to slow down vehicles, but this borders on the ridiculous.
Just up the street from me is what amounts to a 90 degree bend. Okay, fine so far. But you first have to bend 90 degrees to the left, then 180 degrees right, all the while trying to avoid hitting curbs and any other vehicles coming the other way because the bend is so tight and narrow. It's also virtually blind because of a small house sitting in that spit of land. Woe betide you if anything bigger than a car comes the other way because one of you is going to have to back up.
So what about the pedestrians? As you would expect we're all quite sensibly slowing down to reduce the risk of accident, but pedestrians are almost forgotten in the attempt to get our car around this badly designed road without damaging anything. Is that safe? Of course it's not!
Another example: What should be a simple T-junction is a game of Russian Roulette, guessing whether or not your car will be swiped by another car crossing your path as you edge out onto the road. Why is this? It's all because the council idiots approved building houses just a pavement's width from the road, resulting in a blind T-junction!
We're lucky enough to have a driveway large enough for two vehicles. Not everybody is so lucky. Yet the council have the cheek to complain about our parking when it was they who approved the crazy road layouts that make parking on the street such a danger to all road users and pedestrians! By the way, the photo shown here was taken during the day when everyone was presumably out to work (hence not many parked cars). It's a different story later on in the evening.
By: Swindonian
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Housing allocations were also until recently the responsibility of both SEERA and SEEDA, the South East of England Regional Assembly and South East of England Development Agency.
Planning Applications are usually taken care of by local City Council Area Committees. While roads, and parking issues usually come under one's local County Council Highways department.
What passes for "road planning (??)" is farcical. This is what I think goes on in road planning meetings :-
Does It looks good on a drawing board" - Yes,
Will it work?? - NOT a hope in Hell!!
Is it Cheap? - You bet it is!!
Will it frustrate drivers?? - of course it will!!
Is it safe?? - Don't know about that yet but hell let's see what happens Eh?!!
Is there room for a Speed (oops! sorry "safety") camera on it? - You Betcha!!
Is there a chance of increased revenue from that camera or parking restrictions?? - Definitely! We'll do it that way then: to hell with the repercussions for the people in the area, who have to live with it. The Election is 3 years away, and they will have forgotten about it by then.
It seems to me that the Government and local authorities are determined to return to the days when all motor vehicles had to be in convoys, and have a man walking in front with a Red flag.
What passes for "road planning (??)" is farcical. This is what I think goes on in road planning meetings :-
Does It looks good on a drawing board" - Yes,
Will it work?? - NOT a hope in Hell!!
Is it Cheap? - You bet it is!!
Will it frustrate drivers?? - of course it will!!
Is it safe?? - Don't know about that yet but hell let's see what happens Eh?!!
Is there room for a Speed (oops! sorry "safety") camera on it? - You Betcha!!
Is there a chance of increased revenue from that camera or parking restrictions?? - Definitely! We'll do it that way then: to hell with the repercussions for the people in the area, who have to live with it. The Election is 3 years away, and they will have forgotten about it by then.
It seems to me that the Government and local authorities are determined to return to the days when all motor vehicles had to be in convoys, and have a man walking in front with a Red flag.
A little later near Bolton Abbey at 17:00 a grey Ford Focus Zetec SA09YLJ was also up my backside trying to intimidate me to go faster.
Minutes later again driving towards Harrogate a Renault Laguna PJ05JFU coming towards me overtook and had to squeeze in between two other cars.
The smaller ugly looking cars for nancies have the worst drivers generally.
Secondly, we bought the property because, as I already said, it has off-street parking - as do all the houses around here. The problem is that there are no visitor spaces, nor capacity for pretty much anything you can't get on your drive.
So in simple terms for you, my whinge was that the council approved the road scheme, but then later blame problems with the approved scheme on us because of it.
What people forget too quickly these days is that driving is a privilage not a right. If you want to own several vehicles (or even just one) then you need to live somewhere where you can adequately accommodate them. Why would you move to a new house knowing what the roads and parking provisions are like, and then complain about the parking?!! It's like buying a house near Heathrow Airport and then complaining about the noise from all the planes!
Weston Babe