Parking Consultation - latest
Sunday 10th December 2017

You may have seen the council’s announcement in this week’s Richmond & Twickenham Times relating to a proposal for the imminent installation of double yellow lines along Park Road, School Road, and Sandy Lane.
The HWA welcomes the fact that action is at last being taken to deal with the blight of Kingston shoppers parking, often irresponsibly, in this area particularly on Sundays.
However, we consider a blanket application of double yellow lines to be over-kill and likely to lead to a loss of flexible parking in off-peak hours when it causes no problem.
Volunteers from the HWA met with an officer from the Council’s traffic and parking department. We walked along Park Road and pointed out that while double yellow lines might be appropriate on some stretches, it would be better left with single yellows in others. In particular:
The stretch at the High Street end of Park Road from St John’s Road upwards provides useful flexible parking in the evenings for people using the pubs, restaurants and Chase Lodge Hotel, and doesn’t cause obstruction. The officer said he’d consider leaving this as single yellow subject to checking the width of the road.
Spaces in a couple of other areas were also identified which could remain single yellow and in one instance where an extra CPZ/res-permit space could be added.
In general the council officer seemd sympathetic to the idea of retaining flexibility where possible, understanding that being able to park sensibly on single yellow lines overnight is a useful amenity for many residents.
While we were out and about, we also pointed out to the officer the state of the kerbs on the stretch of Park Road that runs alongside the allotments up to Sandy Lane. Over the years the road has been resurfaced many times without the kerbs being raised with the effect that in places the road is virtually level with the kerb. This, along with a narrow road, narrow pavements and often speeding vehicles contributes to the how unsafe it feels to walk along this stretch. We’ll aim to keep this on the Council’s radar.
We also highlighted the awkward bollards on the pavement at the High Street end of Park Road. Originally installed to keep DHL vans off the pavement when there was DHL a depot nearby. DHL departed over ten years ago but the bollards have remained. It is so narrow that if you meet someone coming the other way one of you needs to step into the road to pass. Prams and pedestrians with a shopping bag in each hand also often need to step into the road. The bollards no longer serve a useful purpose in this area and we believe they should be removed.
We discussed the possibility that further restrictions on one road might lead to the problem spreading to adjacent roads and the officer understood this.
We also discussed the possibility of changing the hours of the single yellow lines. By deafult, single yellows have the same hours of operation as the local CPZ. The operational hours of the single yellow lines can be varied separately however this means that signage would need introducing to explain the different operational hours.
Related stories:
Positive progress with the parking consultation. 29th November 2017
Confusion over parking consultation result. 19th November 2017
Richmond Council’s bizarre policy on CPZ consultations. 19th November 2017