Agenda item

Members of the public are invited to put questions to the Chair of the Area Committee on any matters within the powers and duties of the Area Committee, subject to the exclusions set out in the Code of Practice (Questions must be submitted prior to the commencement of the meeting on the cards provided. These are available the meeting. You can also submit via the Council’s website at www.stockport.gov.uk/publicquestions.

Members of the public were invited to submit questions to the Chair of the Area Committee on any matters within the powers and duties of the Area Committee, subject to the exclusions set out in the Code of Practice.

Four public questions were submitted relating to:-

(i)      Clement Road

In response it was noted that Network Management received a request to investigate parking on Clement Road as motorists were parking on or close to the bend and in doing so, were hindering visibility.  With this in mind, the Council carried out a consultation to look at introducing a Traffic Regulation Order ‘No Waiting at Any Time’ (double yellow lines) around the bend on Clement Road. During the consultation,  some residents commented that vehicles parking at this point was a rare occurrence, and if vehicles were parked there that they acted as a form of traffic calming as motorists were forced to slow down on the approach to the bend.  This was observed during officers site visits.  Another comment was received at consultation stating that vehicles parking on the right-hand side of Clement Road, just past its junction with Townscliffe, regularly cause issues for the street cleaning vehicle in that they prevented access to the gully for jetting.  This in turn, has a detrimental effect on one of the properties at this point as their cellar is regularly flooded.  On discussing these comments with the local ward councillors, it was suggested that the extent of the double yellow lines be reduced to 42m to prevent vehicles from parking over the gully, enabling access for future street cleaning visits whilst also leaving more unrestricted parking space for motorists. Network Management are unable to comment on the proposals for car park charges – this element falls within the remit of Parking.

(ii)     Private Hedges

In response, it was noted that a routine annual safety inspection is carried out across all adopted highway routes in the borough. The Council are also reliant on residents reporting any such concerns with overgrown vegetation through the below link. Reports submitted in this manner are extremely valuable to us as this ensures the case is assigned quicky to the relevant officer and also allows an accurate method of tracking/recording all actions taken via the following website https://www.stockport.gov.uk/start/report-a-problem-with-trees-or-vegetation

Where the Council deem vegetation from private land to be causing a safety concern we will contact the relevant home/land owner to request the vegetation is cutback. An officer will make an assessment of the site referenced and will respond directly to the questioner.

(iii)   Marple Carnival

In response the Chair read the following draft response. The Council met with the Carnival Committee on the 24th January and made it clear that with the ongoing works for the Marple Hub there were concerns about holding such a large scale event within Marple Memorial Park. The Carnival Committee were advised that they would need to significantly scale back any activity in the park. They were encouraged to consider alternative locations including Brabyns Park and Arkwright Recreation or even additional road closures. The Committee came back to the Council with a set of proposals to adjust and slightly scale back the use of the Marple Memorial Park but rejected Arkwright and Brabyns (too wet and too far away).  The Council met with the Committee again on the 7th February and re-iterated that the area within the park they could use would be significantly smaller and may struggle to get approval from the Event Advisory Group due to safety concerns (limited space and limited access for emergency vehicles) and once again encouraged them to consider alternatives. Though vehicles would not be able to use the main park path to access the site Garth Road could be used. It was suggested that it would be possible to have a Road Closure on Station Road next to the park to provide this additional space for example.  The Committee came back to the Council with some more proposals but once again it did not take into account the restrictions in place.  Another site meeting with the Committee was planned for 28th February which colleagues from Highways were due to attend. The Council spoke to the Chair of the Carnival Committee on the phone and he said that the Committee were going to cancel this year’s event mainly due to the lack of time they now have to adjust their plans to fit with the restrictions in place.

(iv)   Car Parking Charges

RESOLVED – That the Director of Place Management be requested to respond to the remaining questions in writing.