Staithes Village Memorial Hall, Saturday 6 Dec 2003
Outline notes on public discussion on traffic management - Staithes Village Memorial Hall, Saturday December 6th 2003.
Panel:
Lawrie Quinn - Member of Parliament for Scarborough & Whitby Dave McCluckie (DM) - Cleveland Potash Mine Bill Breakell (BB) - North York Moors National Planning Authority Chris Millns (CM) - North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) Keith Allen (KA) - Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) Inspector Tim Hutchinson (TH) - North Yorkshire Police
Lawrie Quinn took delivery of a petition signed by 300 residents of Staithes.
'We, the undersigned, feel that traffic management in Staithes must become a priority before a serious accident occurs; ie find a means by which visitors can be diverted into Staithes Bank Top car park to alleviate traffic congestion, preventing illegal parking in all areas (especially those allocated for residents) and generally making our village a safer, cleaner and more pleasant place to live.'
Hinderwell - main points of concern from floor:-
Are there any plans for traffic-calming in Hinderwell, such as cameras or speed restrictions? Speeding traffic on main road is a serious problem.
Noise at midnight in village, this problem has recurred.
Car-parking facilities, not adequate
Responses:
Midnight noise - TH will look at this again, although it has been addressed once already. Problems can now be reported without police witnesses being needed. Vehicle reg nos can be passed to police directly by public. (response from floor that there is a problem with getting through to Police Call Centre, so some crime goes unreported).
car-parking facilities - KH is aware of issue of inadequate lighting
traffic calming - CM outlined drawbacks of traffic calming, ie speed humps are the only effective way of slowing traffic. Speed humps cannot be installed on main arterial roads. A 40mph buffer zone is a possibility. Surveys suggest that traffic-calming has been reasonably effective, ie 9mph drop in main road speed from Ellerby, 2mph reduction in centre of village. Many speeding motorists are local people. CM introduced concept of 'Speed Limit Pledge'.
Smiling Sid - DM outlined success of flashing road sign in Teesside
Speed cameras - CM explained that regulations do not allow speed cameras to be installed just anywhere - specific pre-conditions are required. There are only 30 appropriate sites in N Yorks.
ACTION POINT 1 - LQ will write to Hinderwell Parish Council to ask if they can find out whether residents would like a similar meeting in Hinderwell.
Staithes - main points of concern from floor:-
Residents parking - this has to be paid for but residents find they cannot use spaces
Fishermen's area is abused by people parking.
Emergency vehicles cannot get through, as visitors double park
Speeding and excess traffic during holidays
Authorities are slow at reacting to problems
Visible police presence needed, eg Neighbourhood Watch reported an incident but unable to get through to Police Call Centre.
Guest Houses seem to encourage guests to park overnight on The Staithe, how about a designated 'Camping' area?
Could High Street be designated 'Residents Parking'?
Residents Parking at Staithes Lane is a success, but holiday-makers are a problem.
Will yellow lines be relaid when cobbles are finished?
Fairfield Rd is still a problem
Beckside - has double yellow lines but cars park there constantly. Enforcement needed.
Cliff Road - specific problem with a camper van, but SBC not responsive
Visitors should use Staithes Car Park but visitors do not wish to pay.
Roundabout - needs reconfiguring as cars are going straight over roundabout. Many visitors drive past roundabout, look around, stay in cars and drive away again.
Re Residents Parking in High Street - at present it is 40 mins only, if it were Residents Parking it would be constantly full.
Two cars cannot pass one another with the number of cars parked on High Street.
High Street double yellow lines - children cannot play outside their own homes, especially in summer. Similarly at seafront at bottom of Church Street (visitors having a look, taking a photo and driving off) Residents are prisoners in their houses during the summer. Cars should be stopped at the car-park and not allowed into the village.
What about the disabled?
Something practical and effective must come out of the meeting.
Community Transport - re community bus. This project needs support.
NYCC/SBC support needed for reconfiguration of the roundabout, to route traffic automatically into car-park.
Responses:-
DM - has information about sources of funding and is willing to point residents in right direction.
BB - speaking from the Tourism perspective. Suggested a practical approach, ie residents working together with agencies, using a map of the village to go through all the problem areas. Identify specific problems such as Saturday changeover day. For example a free shuttle service - NYMNPA would be glad to facilitate this, BB would be happy to work with Liz Dowson of Spirit of Staithes Initiative. On show of hands, 60% of people in room would like to be involved in this
ACTION POINT 2 - Chris Millns and Keith Allen will take this forward
CM - re enforcement of parking restrictions, this is the responsibility of the police via the traffic wardens. At present, parking fines are not hypothecated (ringfenced and directed back into parking management) but the Government is introducing a scheme to hypothecate. This is already happening in Harrogate, where enforcement has been transferred from the police to the local council. This should happen in Scarborough within approx the next 12 months, there will be SBC traffic wardens to police residential parking and double yellow lines. Signage and existing traffic orders etc have to be checked first.
Re Fairfield Rd the 'Access Only' was a solution which does not appear to have worked. Traffic warden in any case cannot police 'Access Only', warden can only police parking restrictions.
One proposal for preventing visitor access beyond the roundabout could be 'rising bollards' with keypad (with a visible code)
Re double yellow lines on cobbles - these will not be repainted as they would destroy the effect of cobbles. A sign would be better:- ' Beyond here no parking' (nb this would work only if enforced).
KA - any complaints about manner of SBC staff, please contact senior officer at Scarborough Borough Council in future. Agrees with CM and BB and would like to join in any residents scheme, and be more actively involved in traffic management.
'Access Only' does not work unless enforced.
Re: new traffic warden scheme, SBC has to go through procedures/strict rules such as traffic wardens must be in uniform etc. It may be possible to extend job description ie to include picking up litter etc, driving community bus, traffic warden could be a sort of 'village caretaker'.
TH - happy and pleased that the community is looking forward, and have identified problems areas and possible solutions. (ie diversion into car-park etc). Thrust of meeting v positive. There will not be a village policeman again. Figures show reduced crime in Staithes area, down by 40% (disagreement from floor: people often don't report crime as
can't get through to Call Centre
no-one responds quickly anyway.)
There is only 1 warden for Whitby & outlying villages, he is very hard-working considering the area he covers.
Councillor Herbert Tindall stressed that action on traffic management was needed soon, especially in Hinderwell and he welcomed this cross agency initiative as a way of moving things along by engaging the local community.
Further points from floor:-
Obstruction of Emergency Services - action needed now.
TH - there is no legislation relating specifically to obstruction of emergency vehicles, other than the normal offence of obstructing the highway.
CM - obstructing the highway is an enforceable offence, it may be possible to change the sign.
Point from businessman - traffic management schemes often appear to be anti-car, speaking as a businessman please do not discourage visitors as they are our livelihood. We must not stop tourism.
High Street should be as Lane End, ie 'Residents Only'.
Conclusions
DM - car is 2nd most important investment after house. Traffic management schemes should be attractive and safe. Referred to 'Safety Tees Valley' scheme -there is a similar version in Yorkshire, and money is available. Dave will ask his people to show Cllr Herbert Tindall how to access this money (ie for better lighting, CCTV, signage)
TH - schemes must sustain economy and safety, also improve facilities and deter problems
BB - there is a wider issue of Quality of Life. Before the planned 'practical' meeting, research must be done on facts and figures, ie how many parking spaces in any particular street.
KA - very happy at good attendance and suggestions from floor
CM - useful discussion, identified ways forward.
ACTION POINT 3 - Lawrie will send copy of petition to all Top Table agencies
