Controversial Parking Restrictions Implemented On Chanctonbury Road.

It's the road where residents park outside their houses, where commuters love to park for free and where all hell breaks loose when parents park wherever the hell they like when picking their kids up from school!

However, early on Sunday morning, workers on behalf of West Sussex County Council came to Chanctonbury road and proceeded to decorate it with lots of yellow paint.

It's no secret that the Woodland Meeds Special Educational Needs School - due to open in September 2012 - is going to cause an increased amount of traffic congestion on Chanctonbury Road and West Sussex County Council would needed to have acted at some stage.

With proposals for Controlled Parking Zones failing to win the support of local residents, the step of painting single and double yellow lines along parts of the road is a cunning one.

However, this goes against the wishes of many local residents who think they are being punished yet again by WSCC when building a new school in a busy area wasn't already enough! Burgess Hill Town Council also recommended for the County Council to wait until the special school opened before deciding the best way to help manage the traffic/parking problems.

What's good and what's bad
The good - Double yellow lines at the entrance of each cul-de-sac on the west side of the road to stop people parking on and over the corners. The increased visability will lead to better safety and maneuverability.

The bad - Double yellow lines on the east side of the road preventing residents from parking outside their homes and that it won't really make a difference to the flow of traffic. As one resident said on Facebook -- Yes I will be able to reverse out of my drive now with better visability BUT now I have to go to the expense of concreteing or tarmacing my drive so I can park outside my house AND IF I WANT THE KERB DROPPED I HAVE TO RUN IT BY THE COUNCIL AND THEN PAY THEIR CONTRACTORS TO DO IT I'm not a happy bunny

The good - Single yellow line in Holmesdale road by the public footpath leading to London Meed school.

The bad - The line is far too long with the waiting restriction from 8am-4pm instead of being the school drop-off and pick-up times only.





Public meeting gets heated :
According to a local resident on Facebook....
Don't know if anybody on here was at the council meeting at London Meed school on Thursday evening, but Chanctonbury residents were given a flyer through our letter boxes by cllr Anne Jones urging us to go to the meeting to discuss traffic issues down the road.

A fair few of us went, think probably about half the total audience was Chanctonbury residents, but the woman actually chairing the meeting - Heather Ross, would not entertain the idea of discussing the parking issues, every time someone tried to raise it she cut them off & went to someone else. The excuse was that they were going to arrange another meeting *hopefully* within about 2 weeks ' if they can find a date & somewhere to hold it'.. needless to say, it got a tad heated, & virtually all Chanctonbury residents got up & walked out in disgust!


Documents:
17th April 2012 - Report by Director of Communities and Infrastructure.
http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/ds/mis/250412sms1.pdf

Waiting Restrictions Map
http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/ds/mis/250412sms1a.pdf

Objections and comments received
http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/ds/mis/250412sms1b.pdf

Customer Focus Appraisal (Reasons for the traffic regulation order)
http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/ds/mis/250412sms1c.pdf

Discussion thread on Facebook :
The debate on this issue has really taken off on our Facebook Page. There's been over 40 comments so far with differing opinions from both residents and parents of pupils attending London Meed. You can have a read and join in here.....
https://www.facebook.com/burgesshill/posts/444829485549968
and here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=444975995535317

Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
What do you think of the new parking restrictions? Has this really been done for the benefit of local residents or actually just for the new special needs school? Did WSCC consult the public enough on the issue? If you now have double yellows outside your home what will you do for parking? What alternative ideas do you have to solve the congestion issue?