Agenda item

Surrey County Council’s Parking Strategy and Implementation Team have carried out a review of on street parking restrictions within the borough of Woking and identified changes which would benefit road safety and reduce instances of obstruction and localised congestion.

Joint Committee approval is required in order to progress these changes firstly to the stage of ‘formal advertisement’, where the proposed restrictions will be advertised for 28 days and open to support, comments or objections from members of the public and then to implementation.

An additional parking proposal for Hillside is attached together with drawing

The Joint Committee (Woking) agreed that:

(i) the proposed amendments to on-street parking restrictions in Woking as described in this report and in the Hillside supplementary papers and shown in detail on drawings in annex A are approved.

(ii) the joint committee allocates funding as detailed in paragraph 5.1 of this report to proceed with the introduction of the parking amendments.

(iii) the intention of the county council to make an order under the relevant parts of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to impose the waiting and on street parking restrictions in Woking as shown on the drawings in annex A is advertised and that if no objections are maintained, the orders are made.

(iv) if there are unresolved objections, they will be dealt with in accordance with the county council’s scheme of delegation by the parking strategy and implementation team manager, in consultation with the chairman/vice chairman of this committee and the appropriate county councillor.

(v) the intention of the county council to advertise the making of a consolidation Order (without change) of the existing Traffic Regulation Orders to Woking is approved, and that approval for future consolidations, when they become necessary, can be granted by the committee chairman.

(vi) the five parking bay locations identified for conversion into on-street Electric Vehicle charging points are approved. These locations are listed in each County Councillors division of this report, and displayed in their own set of drawings. There is one in Goldsworth East and Horsell. One in The Byfleets. One in Woking North and two in the Woking South divisions.

Reasons for decisions:

It is recommended that the waiting restrictions are implemented as detailed in Annex A. They will make a positive impact towards:-

· Road safety

· Access for emergency vehicles

· Access for refuse vehicles

· Easing traffic congestion

· Better regulated parking

· Better enforcement

Declarations of Interest: None

Officers attending: Peter Wells, Parking Officer, SCC

Petitions, Public Questions, Statements: None

The Parking Officer (PO) presented a report on parking proposals under the 2020 parking review. He outlined that the work had been undertaken during Covid restrictions, so the usual joint site visits with Members were not possible and public involvement with schemes had been limited. The parking task group had also not met to feed into the proposals. The majority of requests had been received prior to lockdown in March 2020. Lockdown had also significantly changed parking patterns in the Town so the parking recommendations report was smaller than usual. Future lockdowns might delay implementation so the smaller review seemed opportune in this regard.

The PO also outlined that a scheme for Hillside (Woking South) was also being added to the proposals. This was discussed at the previous review, but not taken forward, but residents had now changed their views on this, so it would be re-advertised.

Eve Road and Arnold Road (discussed earlier in the meeting) may also need some changes to double yellow lines and these would be agreed by the County Member and the Chair if needed. Cllr Carasco offered some of his Highways budget toward this if required. Cllr Kemp (in his absence) requested a very small change to double yellow lines in Horsell, which would be followed up outside the meeting and added to the advertisement.

The PO outlined the annex that identified locations for Electric Vehicle Charging points throughout the Borough, as part of a County wide scheme.

The PO was thanked for his work in difficult circumstances.