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Consultation underway....

Hello all sorry for the silence, lots has been going on as you can imagine.

Firstly thanks to everyone who has been in touch. We have now been contacted by people from right around the proposed (and the existing) zones. Marten Road, Douglas Ave, Penrhyn etc many people having been totally caught out by the consultation dropping through the door and having just 3 weeks to respond or even work through the issues with neighbours and figure out what is best for them.

I'm attaching a link to another blog that a resident has started (hello!), I think it would be good if we all take a look at both, as we will no doubt come across different issues.

The DROP IN's
Have been quite a hot topic with residents reporting fury at the one on wednesday, with no councillors in attendance and apparently Tom Wright claiming that the residents of Winns Ave wanted the zone they are in, hence the problems for everyone else. Now we all know that the Winns Ave residents voted convincingly against being included and it was a unilateral decision by Mr Belam that went against the consultation results, so this is a worrying turn of events - complete misinformation. If anyone has anything to report from teh Saturday meeting it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Various residents are proposing petitions, leaflets, some posters went up on lampposts too, but they were taken down by the Council. It would be great if you would all act on these ideas - the Council has started pointing people in our direction when they ask difficult questions that they don't want to answer. I'd like to encourage you to hassle the Council for information - it is the Councils job to listen to us, we elect them and pay our taxes. We are very pleased to hear from you, but don't let the Council fob you off with "get in touch with them", get annoyed and get answers!

They didn't listen to any of our feedback about these consultations, they didn't let us see a draft for the LP zone (which gives few options and doesn't reflect the prefered results from WinnsA and Diana Rd when they were consulted in 2008). They didn't even inform us when it was going to take place (though they managed to tell other resident groups). The only way we will get any joy is to get residents to get involved and vote and use the comments boxes, to call, email and write letters to the Council and hopefully get the local press involved.

I'm trying to attach a text only copy of the leaflet we have been putting through doors (or will upload a picture of it), so that residents in other areas can see what information we are passing around. Do feel free to copy, print and distribute where you are. And please let us know if you find people who haven't had the consultation pack through - just FYI I had a complaint against the council partially upheld, and only partially because the Council kept such poor records, because not all residents (4 including me that I know of on Winns Ave alone) simply did not get the pack through their door. I have had 2 emails so far this time saying the same thing - so please do let us know.

There is lots more to be said but for now we have to get on with writing to LP and WA zone residents (on the W side of the park, if anyone is interested in sorting the E side let me know).
Best wishes all - and Lorna, thank you for getting in touch about Penrhyn Hall, a worrying story and one to add to our list. Are you are in touch with the Council and petitioning users of the hall? I would also contact the local Guardian newspaper - it is an important local news story.
Andrea

Anyone seen the consultation?

Hello and Happy New Year.
No news as such to report from the Council. We received a response from Councillor Macklin to our feedback after the meeting. It was garbled, badly spelt, took no notice of our points, quibbled over not being invited to our residents meeting (we aren't invited to their meetings about the CPZs and they are making decisions about our lives!), in short it was a rant and we didn't think it worth a response. He copied in his fellow Councillors and personally I hope he is embarassed about that communication, as it was a deeply unprofessional response to a perfectly civil email from a community group.

A member of Friends of Lloyd Park forwarded us a message that had been sent around their email group. I thought I'd copy some of this text here as it is relevant to our concerns... (hmmm it appears that I can't paste the mail - I'll post this and try and figure it out.) The gist is that visitor numbers to the park and the various facilities and clubs are down and that one of the criterion of the lottery grant is increasing visitor numbers (the only park for miles). There was concern that the park will only be usable by those who live nearby, are able to walk (or my addition are lucky enough to live on a direct bus route and are able to use it). Another point is that Friends of Lloyd Park seem to have been told dates for the consultation, which is really useful (and worth noting that the Council have not told us this information, even though they are very familiar with us). Looks like the end of consultation is te 19th Feb.
If anyone gets the document through their door, it would be great to know when the consultation starts - though I'll email and ask the direct question today.
Best wishes all:)
Andrea

Summary for new joiners

Hello All, The Council has announced a new plan re: the parking situation in the area. If you would like to see more of the whole story, please do scroll to the bottom of this page and click on older posts and work your way back to the beginning. However in summary...

We had a residents meeting last week and the outcome was that many residents wanted to write to the Council to voice their concern about the proposal and how the consultation is taking place. They asked for a list of contacts and a summary of the points we discussed.
In short the Council plan, very shortly, to conduct 3 different neighbouring consultations simultaneously.

• 
  They will ask the current Lloyd Park (LP) zone to the west of the Park if they want to change the days and hours of their current zone. This is in response to complaints from those roads about the 7 day a week, 13 hour a day restrictions imposed.
• 
  They will ask Winns Ave if they want to be removed from the current zones they are in. The section of Winns Ave that is in the LP will also be asked what hours they would prefer as above.
  The results and effects of any changes made will not be known as...
• They will simultaneously be asking a large area to the North of Winns Ave (back to Billet Road) if they want a new zone put in place.
  The consensus at the meeting was that the introduction of the LP and Winns Ave Zones caused many of the problems residents now face to the north and that changes to these zones could significantly alleviate those problems. For example if Winns Ave votes out and LP votes for 5 days a week for limited hours, this would free up an enormous number of parking spaces and potentially returning the neighbouring roads to the situation before the zone, without the cost and inconvenience of imposing a new zone.

We wrote back to the Council about the concerns about the process of the new consultation at the recent meeting and suggesting some changes to the draft we were sent. To date neither Cllr Belam not Tom Wright from his office has replied, though we did have a response from Cllr Macklin which was largely unhelpful and confused. For example, in response to our statements of concern that residents raised he asked why we kept asking questions. We weren't, we were telling them what was discussed at the meeting. It makes it difficult to send him a helpful response. Will let you know when we hear from the relevant people.

Best wishes,

Andrea

Post meeting

Hello everyone,
Great to see so many people there last night, I counted over 50 a great turn out at really late notice.

I'm putting together an email with the information and contacts people wanted, which I'll send over the weekend, so that anyone who is concerned can write to the appropriate people. It was heartening so many people asked for that information.

Thanks again, you'll be hearing from us soon and I'll post again soon too.
Best wishes,
Andrea

reminder:meeting tomorrow (Thursday)

just a quick reminder for those of you interested,the next meeting is held tomorrow (Thursday) at 07:00pm at the Lloyd Park Children's Centre.
The aim is to discuss the council's latest proposal's for arranging car parking in the area.



All welcome.



thanks John,Nick,Andrea and everyone who has helped distribute reminder leaflets around the area.

PS.

The Lloyd Park Centre, which provides lots of valuable services to the local community, kindly agreed to let me stick up a copy of an email that was written to the council (and cc'd to some of us concerned about parking in the area) to illustrate the problems caused to the centre by the current parking arrangements.

For those who are interested in the issues of parking in the Lloyd Park area; I would like to share with you some recent data that illustrates the impact of the CPZ.
Comparing data about The Lloyd Park Centre's services and activities from the last quarter (July - Sept) against the same period in 2008 found the following:
1) The centre's reach was down by 272 people and,
2) The volume of users over that period was down by 514 people.
Through both periods when this data was collected the centre provided roughly the same services and activities with the same opening hours and number of staff. We continue to receive numerous complaints about the CPZ especially for families with more than one under 5, very young babies, or those who are accessing the centre after daylight hours. I would like to acknowledge and appreciate the problems facing local residents; however the solution to the problems created by the CPZ should consider the needs of the whole community. I would be interested to hear your thoughts about this and would appreciate any comments or advice.

Re consultation news...

Hello,
Some of you may have heard the latest on the reconsultation. 3 of us had the draft delivered on a Friday night by hand with a cover letter asking for feedback by the 30th of October (that days date). On the Monday 1st Nov when the council was next back at work, we asked what the real deadline was and were told the 2nd Nov. So that's 24 hours notice of the deadline.

If the council had told us when we were going to get the documents we could have arranged a meeting for the Monday and given them considered feedback, from the community on the date requested, but they don't seem keen on giving us information as we know.

I sent back my thoughts on the process, (basically outlined below, as in an email sent on the 23rd Sept to which I have still to receive a response from Cllr Belam) and on the wording. There are 3 or 4 documents that will be used depending on where you live.

The Winns Ave questionnaire was far from satisfactory, it asked if we wanted in or out and that was about it. No option to express what days or hours we wanted if it was to remain (we could be included in the N extension if our opinions more closely matched those residents preferences, rather than being left as we are in a zone we didn't want to be in with the hours being the ones least people on the road voted for in LP and the second least popular in the WA section). If the area to the north votes in favour we, on Winns Ave, will be included whether we want it or not and as the document was written we wouldn't have a vote on what those hours would be.

My arguement has always been that we shouldn't have been included first time round as there was no problem and residents didn't want it, we were the end of the zone and so could easily have not been included. Our road is now half empty all the time (according to their own traffic survey) and I have no doubt that we were a buffer that has now been removed, exacerbating the problems outside the zone. But they won't listen, or consult on Winns Ave first and let residents see the changes in surrounding roads if we vote ourselves out. They just want to extend and extend, £££££££££££££££.

The other documents are just as confused, lots of if this road votes this you will be included too, bear in mind this might happen, that might happen, basically I found the documents and the way this has been handled very manipulative.

We even had an email, when we complained that we had no time to talk to residents, implying that it was residents fault, that we delayed the meeting with the council. Just for clarification, we met them in March, they carried out the surveys in March and April (it was only 2 days btw)and then suggested meeting with us in peak holiday weeks in August. We asked for a delay of 3 weeks so that people could attend, they have been delaying for MONTHS. Sorry to shout but honestly, they aren't fooling anyone. I have to say that my first letter (december last year) to the council about this was civil, helpful, had suggestions and and a positive tone. The disregard for common sense, logic, transparency and to be honest an assumption that we, the residents, are stupid is incredible and today I have honestly lost respect for the Council and council officers in particular.

Anyway you should also have received an email inviting you to a group meeting to discuss everything and what response people would like to make.
Phew sorry for a long and ranty one, I will try and check in more regularly and look at any comments/posts that get made.
Hope all are well
Andrea