37 PROPOSALS FOR LEATHERHEAD HIGH STREET [EXECUTIVE FUNCTION - FOR DECISION] PDF 85 KB
Surrey Highways received a request from Mole Valley District Council to include the proposed changes to on street parking in Leatherhead High Street within the current parking review. This is in support of the Transform Leatherhead project.
To progress this proposal, which has been approved by Mole Valley District Council, the committee is asked to decide either to approve the formal advertisement of the County Council’s intention to make the changes to on-street parking restrictions or to defer the approval to the next parking review (likely March 2021). It is cost effective to carry out formal advertisement of changes to on-street parking within the advertising for the parking review.
Additional documents:
Decision:
The Mole Valley Local Committee agreed to:
iii) Reject both options 1 & 2 put forward in the report.
Reason for decision
The above decision was made because the Local Committee felt neither option was a solution or was what the residents wanted. Neither option would achieve what Transform Leatherhead was trying to.
Minutes:
Declarations of Interest: Mr Cooksey declared a non-pecuniary interest that he chaired the Cabinet Meeting of Mole Valley District Council that had approved the recommendations to go forward to the Local Committee.
Officers attending: Zena Curry, Area Highways Manager (AHM), SCC
Petitions, Public Questions, Statements: None
The AHM introduced the report; highlighting that the Local Committee were being asked to support Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) to advertise the Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) as detailed in the report. The scheme had already been approved by MVDC’s Cabinet and they believed it was what was needed to support the Transform Leatherhead (TL) Project. She added that work was already underway to declutter and improve the signage around the town centre.
The MVDC Cabinet member for Projects put forward the below points to support the proposal.
·
The TL
proposals had come about from the petition put forward to the Local
Committee by the Leatherhead Residents’ Association (LRA) and
what was practical to do.
·
To remove
the parking on the high street would improve the safety, create
better access for businesses, allow businesses to extend their
table and chair licences and improve access for people with
mobility issues.
·
There were
plans also to introduce more markets and introduce parklets to make it overall more
welcoming.
·
MVDC had
focussed on better promoting free car parking times and increasing
the number of free 30 minute bays.
· She gave examples of other towns that had undergone similar transformations; Coventry, Loughborough and Shoreditch; noting that many other towns had also experienced the same decline in the high street as Leatherhead, and it was therefore essential to create a town centre experience to encourage people to come.
Key points from the discussion:
·
Members
showed their concern over the risk of removing the car parking from
the high street. They felt the parking was essential to keep the
evening trade alive. They noted it was dangerous to try and revive
the day time economy at the expense of the evening
economy.
·
It was
felt that more needed to be done by TL in terms of improved leisure
outlets and activities before a drastic change like this could be
implemented.
·
It was
noted that the decision would be a difficult one for the committee
to make as there were good arguments on both sides and there was no
easy solution.
·
The point
was made that Leatherhead High Street was not alone in being dead
between 2.30-6pm. This was common of the time, with trends changing
and people favouring online shopping
instead.
·
Support
was shown for what TL was hoping to achieve but several members
commented that they didn’t feel the time was right and in the
past many other schemes to improve Leatherhead had not worked.
There was belief this would be no different.
·
There was
lots of new developments in Leatherhead. Many of which did not have
adequate parking as it was. Removing another place to park would
only lead to further parking issues in the town centre.
· The ... view the full minutes text for item 37