We ran a small survey over the summer. Not the best time to get a good response rate, and not the largest sample, but we got a sufficient number of returns nonetheless and this has enriched the otherwise impressionistic picture of problems and issues that we have been building up for our end of the High Street. I am mindful that it is still only a snapshot of views (Link to the full interactive chart) but all the same indicative.
Ahead of all problems mentioned, and overwhelmingly so were:-
- Lack of Residents Parking,
- Littering around shops, and
- Poor Council Consultation.
I am not sure we needed a survey to tell us there is not enough residents parking, there is no residents parking on the High Street, unless you’re lucky enough to be a social housing tenant!
Conversely, residents did not perceive there were as many problems with:-
- Drug dealing or Drug Use,
- Noise from Neighbours (excepting deliveries and a small proportion of residents who do experience problems),
- Cyclists on Pavements
- Flytipping
(thankfully after many years our local flytipping site has been reclaimed for a community garden project.)
Interestingly, young people did not seem to be identified as a specific problem, though this has been mentioned to me, albeit by a minority. Vandalism and damage to property seem to be less important issues too, though most people said they were ‘Sometimes a problem’.
Still, more than 50% of residents said the following were either ‘Always a problem’ or ‘Often a problem’:
- Unsafe Crossings & General Road Safety
- People drunk and rowdy
- Noise from boy racers
- Inconsiderate parking by delivery vans
- Illegal parking, and
- Gulls Mess and Dog Fouling level pegging
We do not have to add the ‘Sometimes a problem’ to see that Road Safety issues feature most prominently and are by far the greatest concern. Parking related issues were universally mentioned, with no respondents saying they were ‘Rarely a problem’.
All in all the snapshot suggests a fairly broad range of typical concerns – far more perhaps than you’d expect for a quiet sleepy rural town, which shuts down for almost 2 days a week.
It is of significant concern that there should be such a concentration of road environment issues. It is difficult to say but much of this is probably associated with short duration trips to the High Street for errands and convenience shopping. It is equally difficult to see how extending parking duration (90 minutes) or providing additional parking (a proposed new car park at Abbeylands) will resolve these problems as turnover is already high. Unless accompanied by significant new measures that discourage the use of the private car, I wouldn’t mind betting on greater congestion and parking problems. It would be a shame if the measures were simply restricted to calming, though I believe these would also help.
I have said before that I think there should be significantly better provision for delivery vehicles, accompanied by enforceable restrictions (during non-working hours and at weekends.) Also the distribution of the environmental impacts associated with all forms of road traffic should feature as part of the decision making process, as it seems so many of these problems are concentrated at our end (very short term & drop off parking, bus stops, deliveries, excessive speeds).