Agenda item

15.1

A petition had been received from Jane Hilton which had received 85 signatures:

“Residents Only Parking on Castle Croft Drive, S2 2BF and S2 2BZ

For the last eight years, residents of Castle Croft Drive have been requesting parking restrictions. Our lives are blighted on a daily basis by the influx of 50 to 60 vehicles using our road as free parking. This results in pavements and driveways being blocked, speeding by some drivers, parking on blind bends, restricted access for large and emergency vehicles, pollution, ASB including drug taking, loud music and litter. Residents are faced with abuse and threats on a regular basis if they ask drivers to move their vehicles away from driveways. We are reporting parking issues and associated behaviour to SYP daily. The situation is impacting on our safety, that of our children and pets and our mental health. It is intolerable.”

The Chair responded with the following answer:

Thank you for coming to the Committee today to present this petition and for the supporting information that you kindly supplied to Members yesterday.

As you will recall, residents in the Park Hill area of the city were consulted on a permit parking scheme back in March 2022 and I recall speaking to many as part of a public meeting at the time.

Of the 1,088 responses to the consultation the Council received, 905 objected to the plans, including some residents of Castle Croft Drive.

Sheffield City Council also received a petition with 2,145 signatures against the scheme.

Many of the objections received commented that the proposed project was too large.

A new proposal with a smaller boundary, including Castle Croft Drive, was presented to the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee on 15 June 2023.

As you may recall, the Committee voted against the proposal back then, and as part of this it was stated the parking scheme would not be revisited in the near future.

You have raised the issue of dangerous parking in the supporting information that you kindly provided. This Committee has adopted Vision Zero, which is a commitment to eliminate all fatalities and serious injuries on Sheffield’s road. We therefore take this very seriously and it is why many Members of this Committee have been dismayed to see South Yorkshire Police cancel Operation Park Safe, which allowed residents to take photos of dangerous parking, with a view to police carrying forward a prosecution. The council does have jurisdiction over aspects of parking in the city and therefore, considering your question I will write to the Chair of Communities, Parks and Leisure Policy Committee to request that appropriate enforcement action is taken.

In terms of a way forward to your petition, I have spoken to your ward councillors and political leaders across this Committee, and we have agreed to ask officers to investigate whether a limited parking scheme covering Castle Croft Drive could be delivered and if so, how this could be achieved at no cost to the council, given the financial pressures that we as a city face. We will ask for that this assessment be made and will write to you in due course.

Thank you for bringing this petition today along with the supporting evidence and photographs.

15.2

A petition had been received from Tom Barnard which had received 31 signatures:

“Osgathorpe Drive and Fir View Gardens Residents Petition for Traffic Calming

We, the residents of Osgathorpe Drive and Fir View Gardens, Sheffield, S4, hereby petition Sheffield City Council to re-install traffic calming devices/measures which were removed and not reinstalled after the recent housing development scheme which has extended Osgathorpe Drive by 20 residential properties, both increasing the vehicular traffic and young children playing on Osgathorpe Drive.”

The Chair responded with the following answer:

Thank you for coming to the Committee today to present this petition and for the supporting information that you kindly supplied to Members.

As you may already know, part of the planning process when the new development was constructed was to make all the private road to the new development adoptable and therefore bring it up to highway standard.  As I understand it, there are still some minor snagging issues outstanding with the developer, and the road is not yet adopted. I will ask council officers to look into this further, as I know that this is often an issue in parts of the city and leads to understandable frustration from residents. Please let me get back to you on this.

With regards to traffic calming measures, I have asked officers to look back over documents and there is nothing within the planning conditions that required any traffic calming measures to be introduced and we have no plans to introduce additional measures at this location.

For roads that are already part of the highway network, and I appreciate that Osgathorpe Drive continues to be unadopted, an established process for dealing with such requests and scoring them according to a set of criteria is used. This is to ensure that limited funding available is used in an appropriate manner to target interventions that require the most urgent attention.

Officers have suggested that you and your neighbours may wish to speak with the developer – Great Places, to see if they would have an interest in funding traffic calming measures here, these would have to be installed to highway standards and would then be integrated into our highway network, once the road is adopted. I am happy to work with your councillors to see what additional support we can provide to you in making this case to Great Places.

Thank you for bringing your petition. I can understand just how frustrating this is.

15.3

A question had been received from Stephen Clarke regarding cycling on pavements and in pedestrianised areas. Stephen Clarke did not attend the meeting therefore a written response would be provided and published on the Committee webpage.

15.4

Three questions had been received from Amy Ashton regarding traffic growth and the impact on Meadowhead roundabout, the A61 bus corridor and Woodseats district centre. Amy Ashton did not attend the meeting therefore a written response would be provided and published on the Committee webpage.

15.5

Three questions had been received from Sam Wakeling, Sheffield Safe Streets Now, regarding street and road safety, particularly relating to the Park Hill junction, and involving the community in plans to make the streets in Sheffield safe. Sam Wakeling did not attend the meeting therefore a written response would be provided and published on the Committee webpage.

15.6

Four questions were received from David Cronshaw relating to the impact that the clean air zone had on pollution levels and the income from fines as a result of the Arundel Gate bus gate and clean air zone. David Cronshaw did not attend the meeting therefore a written response would be provided and published on the Committee website.

15.7

A question was received from Dr Mike Smith and Lyndsey McLellan relating to the 20mph strategy. Dr Mike Smith and Lyndsey McLellan did not attend the meeting therefore a written response would be provided and published on the Committee website.