Good to see dubious RPZ tactics exposed
Your reporter Stephen Sumner’s investigational skills deserve recognition for his story in last week’s Chronicle on the debacle taking place in the Entry Hill/hansford Square area with regards to ‘consultation’ on a new residents-only parking zone (RPZ).
Without Stephen’s exposé, few residents would know what dubious tactics are being used to implement an RPZ in an area where there are currently few parking issues.
The RPZ is being forced on residents as part of the plans to introduce traffic restrictions (LTN) on Entry Hill, still officially out for consultation.
Why did B&NES not ask residents if they wanted such parking restrictions, and why did it take a party political leaflet (apparently endorsed by both Combe Down Lib Dem councillors) posted through some, but not all, doors in the area for residents to know what was being considered?
But that leaflet landed on doormats on December 19: the very day the consultation was due to end. And one councillor whose picture appears on the leaflet has said publicly he knew nothing about it, or the RPZ plans.
So who initiated this leaflet without approval from the councillors featured on it? And was anyone in the council involved?
The implementation of the RPZ will mean residents, and their visitors, having to pay to park outside their own homes. Inevitably many may decide to tarmac over their front gardens to avoid the charges. What a great example this council is setting when it has signed up to both a climate and ecological emergency.
What is even more shambolic is that the map on proposed new traffic and parking restrictions shows the zone stretching to part of Foxhill, yet no leaflets have been delivered there. Are residents of Foxhill being ignored, and will they also be forced to pay to park outside their homes?
It seems clear that it is this administration’s obsession to develop the former Entry Hill golf course which is behind the proposed parking restrictions.
The whole process of awarding the site to a commercial mountain bike operator has been flawed from the outset: cloaked in secrecy and it seems earmarked for this project from the outset, despite there officially being a, yes, ‘consultation.’
There is apparently to be no extra on-site parking, but the operator needs to attract many extra visitors, and implementing an RPZ in the streets close by is surely an attempt to mask the inevitable local parking issues when the planning application is submitted.
Why are the council bank-rolling this planned development for the few, and not the city as a whole?
Why is nearly £500k of public money being given/lent on this questionable development? Where is the scrutiny by non-lib Dem councillors? Put simply, none has been allowed.
There are those who will be looking closely when the mountain biking planning application is submitted to see why this proposal was chosen from the start, who submits the application (will it be the council itself?), and thus who is paying considerable sums to planning consultants to back up the application.
The public needs full access to all the documents on the Entry Hill site from May 2019, and in particular the cabinet report and minutes, to see why this inappropriate use, financially, environmentally, from the city’s wider interest – and from the local parking viewpoint – was chosen above other proposals which would have been more appropriate against all these measures.
Sadly this is another example of how we as residents are being kept in the dark and treated as annoying irritants by this council. It must not be allowed to continue, and it is pleasing to see our local paper and others exposing what is going on behind the scenes in our city. Bob Goodman Combe Down