As the 3rd May draws closer campaigning tends to ramp up a gear at this time of the year. Yesterday was a busy day of delivery across the two Shoebury Wards starting with West Shoebury ward in the morning where our Shop Local campaign was well received.
Yesterday afternoon I was delighted to join my colleagues in neighbouring Shoeburyness ward to deliver their latest leaflet in the High Street, Blackgate Road, East Beach Park and Gunners Road. The roads behind the High Street were a splendid sight in the mild afternoon early Spring sunshine, peaceful, tranquil and spotlessly clean, except, sadly, for the amount of discarded leaflets from Cllr Anne Chalk publicising her residents meeting for tomorrow evening.
On the tatty looking slip posted in either letter boxes or thrown on the floor was the little gem of an item - Parking Proposals for the High Street. Before Cllr Chalk joined the local blogging community (Although I strongly suspect this is the work of her husband) she used her Shoebury News website as the mouth piece for her views.
A long standing item on her website is this item on how the CCTV vehicle is catching motorists who park on the yellow lines to access local shops. One of the main reasons why this occurs is that commuters use the free unrestricted parking outside the shops instead of paying C2C station parking charges. To alleviate this problem I agreed to the proposal from the Shoeburyness Conservative councillor Roger Hadley to advertise for consultation to residents and businesses for parking bays in front of the High Street shops with a one in four hour restriction subject to his two Independent Party colleagues agreeing to the proposal.
A sensible solution you would think? Yes? The businesses think so from the letters that I have received on this issue as they are crying out for these type of measures, except if you are the Independent Party. Unfortunately Cllr Chalk has thrown a spanner in the works for residents and local businesses in the High Street by saying she couldn't agree to the proposals until Tuesday the earliest until she has her residents meeting out of the way.
What is really odd about her decision is that, thanks to Cllr Chalk, there are no High Street parking proposals to discuss tomorrow evening. Had Cllr Chalk agreed to the proposal then this would have had a statuary consultation period allowing residents and businesses to agree or disagree to the proposals with the Traffic & Parking hearing any objections raised.
So much for caring for residents and local businesses. I'm sure the businesses will find a way to show Cllr Chalk their appreciation. The Independent Party in Shoeburyness really do promise a lot but actually deliver very little.
1 comment:
Tony, you will see from my blog that at the meeting a vote was taken on the proposal for a 1 in 4 restriction and 18 were for the scheme , 16 were against it and there were 4 abstentions. I will be agreeing with the majority but had you bothered to attend our meeting to understand the issues facing those who objected you might have been able to see the bigger picture. As portfolio holder for Traffic & Parking never forget the old proverb, "More haste, less speed".
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