Agenda item

A petition has been received in the following terms:

“Please sign this petition if you agree that Kings Avenue should be full day (8am to 6:30pm Monday to Saturday) parking control zone”

At the time of publication of the agenda the petition contained 71 signatures.

A petition, containing 71 signatures from Watford residents, had been received in the following terms:

“Please sign this petition if you agree that Kings Avenue should be Full day (8am to 6.30pm Monday to Saturday) parking control zone”

Mr Naveed Iftikhar attended the meeting and was invited to present his petition to Cabinet.

Mr Iftikhar stated that the road was very narrow for parking and currently only had match day parking restrictions.  It was very difficult to find a parking space at night.  He thought that other zones were less congested.  He had received a letter from the Council saying that there had been a vote against full zone hours in his road.  However, the majority of people wanted a fully controlled zone.

The Mayor responded that people would say different things on the door step when presented with a petition.  People signed petitions because they did not want to upset their neighbour.  However, petitions did raise concerns.  The Mayor had asked for the letter to be sent to residents following the consultation as there had been roads which were in favour of going into a controlled parking zone.  As a result of the letter there had been the petition which was now before Cabinet, and other roads had been in touch with the Council and their local councillors wanting to be part of the zone.

Parking was a difficult issue and the Council had to do what was best for the majority of residents.  The Mayor had spoken to officers and local councillors, including Councillor Dhindsa who was present at the meeting, and had decided to put a temporary hold on the three roads that were due to go out for statutory consultation for extended hours.  The Council was going to write again to properties in zone M/N which had rejected the proposal for full hours at the last consultation.  This would include Kings Avenue.  The letter would state that this was residents’ last chance to have their say on being included or excluded from the extended hours proposal.  If the response was yes from these roads then the Council would look to add them to the three that were already proposed to be included in the scheme for full hours.  If the response was no then they would remain match day only controlled parking.  The Mayor encouraged Mr Iftikhar to approach his neighbours and ask them to respond to the letter.

In response to questions from Councillor Bell, the Mayor said that the timeline would be as soon as possible for the letters to go out to residents and officers had stated this could happen within the next three weeks.  There would be no need for further use of consultants, it would just be the council contacting residents again.  The name of the zone could be discussed with officers.

In response to the petitioner the Mayor explained that three weeks should be sufficient for residents to reply.  Once this further consultation had been carried out there would be no change to the zone for two years.  Local councillors would also help to encourage responses.  The Mayor would speak to officers about working with local businesses as it was important to protect them and to find ways to work with them.

Councillor Sharpe commented that there had been a meeting with local ward councillors.  The situation had arisen as there had been a mixed response within the area following the last consultation.  Zones M and N had a large divergence of views on the issue of parking.  This final approach would find out what people wanted.