Traffic and Parking issues

Meeting -17th December, 2010 with members of the Council’s Highways Department.

Quite separate from the the missing resident’s petition, are their concerns about the quality of their lives if this ‘hospital’ building project on Swinemoor, does go ahead and specifically concerned, are numerous residents of Sigston Road, a potential rat run which runs parallel to Swinemoor Lane.   A separate petition from approximately 25 of these residents, calls for the site at the Ambulance Station to be the new Hospital site and they want answers to the following questions. Following information given about this road, the following questions were put to three Council representatives:

The additional traffic movements on Swinemoor Lane, as a result of the construction of the hospital, combined with the effects of the Flemingate development, a proposed Grovehill development and the Southern Relief Road, will lead to additional traffic volumes on surrounding roads, most notably on Sigston Road which runs parallel to Swinemoor Lane.

 

1.Why did no-one from the Council’s Highway’s Department consider the residents of Sigston Road in the traffic plan for the hospital, prior to outline planning consent being given by this council, because this road’s usage as a ‘rat run’ is likely to increase substantially?

Apart from it being an already busy and dangerous road, used by Little Buses, Leconfield’s driving cars and with children playing near the roadside, there are few off-road parking areas and even fewer garages for most residents on Sigston Road.

2. Did anyone from the Council’s Highway’s Department consider the potential problems to residents of Sigston Rd from visitors parking? This will be more of a problem if it is decided to impose parking charges within the hospital, however cheap. The problem will increase in time, if expansion takes place.

3. Who will be responsible for traffic and parking problems and will any  complaints by residents be taken seriously and by whom?

 

4. Can we have confirmation that parking permits will not be imposed on  the Sigston  Road residents, if what we predict occurs as a result of all the traffic from the developments at Flemingate, Grovehill, the Southern Relief Road and now the hospital Swinemoor?

 

5.  Could you inform us how and where the hospital development will expand when the whole site is filled?

 

6. The majority of residents believe that if the hospital cannot be re-built at the Westwood site, then it should be built north and to the west of the Beverley Ambulance station. For this reason and because of conflicting reasons given as to why this site could not have be chosen instead, could we have clarification as to why not?

COMMENTS- NOT  QUESTIONS

 

7.   Many residents, some who have lived in this area for sixty years, believe that this is the wrong site, because it will flood.

8. Many residents are concerned about the wildlife and that they will no longer be able to enjoy their comparatively peaceful walks with their dogs, with views across the fields.

SUMMARY

The Council’s approval of the massive Flemingate Development, to include shops, housing and business premises, not to mention the Gallows Lane College and coupled with the additional traffic into Beverley via the Southern relief road, will  adversely affect the quality of life of all the residents living on the South side of Beverley and made worse by them having to cross railway lines to access the town centre. The Council gave planning consent for this, even before the highways department had finalised their plans, therefore, no concern for the effects on residents. A hospital on this site will  only add to these potentially horrendous traffic, travel and parking problems, especially affecting those residents living on and around Sigston Road, an already busy residential area, described by the hospital planners as deprived; if not, certainly about to become so.

THEIR RESPONSES

No one at the Council could trace the residents’ petition which had been delivered by hand to the Council office in Cross Street.  A signed and witnessed statement of delivery was provided. Their only response was that the petition must have been delivered too early and that it may have been disposed of.

It was clear that they did not really want to discuss the Ambulance station site and suggested that it would be better that energies were spent getting the chosen sight right! (see Ambulance Station site )

In reply to question 5, there were no proposals to expand.

Apparently all the points had been considered by the Council and will be discussed at the next stage, i.e. the ‘Reserved Matters Council Meeting’. They are aware that traffic and particularly parking on Sigston Road is a problem that they have to deal with and they did seem concerned about the effect of overflow from hospital parking to Sigston, due to the rules on how much parking is allowed within a hospital.

But this didn’t prevent the outline planning consent being given, did it?

Comment:

The Reserved Matters Council meeting is important. We have a chance to make our feelings known. This is our chance to have a say, before it is too late. Date to be notified!