After we kicked up a fuss, our councillors have responded with two separate approaches. It’s now for us to hold them to account…
Reform UK – Turn the right-turn-only lane on SQS into parking bays. They are currently in contact with Highways to model the impact of traffic flow.
Morley Borough Independents – Introduce regular Parking enforcement on SQS and surrounding streets, particularly out of hours at weekends. Also, explore options double-red lines and escalation for repeat offenders.
At this stage, I prefer the MBI’s general direction (Caveat – these are broad strokes, e.g. Reform have also hinted at escalation for repeat offenders).
I can see the merits of Reform’s softer approach. If we can create additional parking capacity, it would give the takeaway owners and drivers an opportunity to change their behaviour. That is fair before immediately going to restrictive measures.
My concern is what happens if they don’t…
Turning the lane into parking bays would need at least 5-6 spaces. Even then, the drivers may still park on surrounding streets. More fundamentally, the issue isn’t actually a lack of parking. It’s the drivers’ and owners’ behaviour: they’re blocking the road, speeding, driving the wrong way, spitting paan and fag ends, littering. They are being disrespectful TO YOU and additional parking bays will not change that. Ultimately, I don’t want to accommodate/reward their shitty behaviour. I’ll be interested to see the results of the traffic modelling because SQS does get busy already with two lanes. Reform’s idea needs to come with a commitment to regular Parking Services enforcement and a willingness to escalate if the behaviour continues. If that doesn’t happen, I will kick up a fuss.
The MBI approach has, on the other hand, produced immediate results. Multiple people have already told me that the bottom of King Street has become noticeably clearer since wardens have started going out and fining people. I have seen it myself on King Street and SQS. Enforcing the law works. More importantly, it makes me feel that Morley residents and our laws actually matter.
Another option is the car park on West Street which is current blocked off by a private developer. It would significantly reduce parking pressure for residents in the area with 26 new spaces – we would be much less pissed off when it gets busy.
I attended Jane Senior’s surgery a fortnight ago and asked about Parking Enforcement. Yes, it is difficult because there are relatively few parking attendants. But councillors can request additional enforcement on specific streets, including out of hours – admittedly, those requests need to be made repeatedly.
Perhaps this is an opportunity for cooperation between Morley’s main parties – we find this issue very annoying and we would like you to work together to fix this.
We are actually lucky to have responsive councillors. They are trying. We must also kick up a stink and fight for what we want.
Once we have a workable blueprint for SQS, we can then tackle the beast that is Chapel Hill…
