Drewitts Court Car Park…….moves on

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As you will be aware there is a proposal from the Council to close the Bridge Street exit of the Drewitts Court Car Park.

The reason put forward for closure by the Council is:

….the car park is used as a short cut for cars just passing through, and “traffic passing through the car park is generally travelling at speed”. Closure of the exit to Bridge Street therefore would “improve pedestrian safety”…..

A petition of over 600 signatures was presented to the Council in April and the proposal was withdrawn and it was agreed that a review of the proposal would take place and the Portfolio holder Cllr. Mr Archer agreed that ward councillors would be consulted during this review.

To date the two Walton Society Ward Councillors have not been consulted.

However, two of our local very concerned residents Mr Mole Kenny and Mr Graham Woolgar have undertaken a study of the traffic activities using the car park and at their request to the Leader of the EBC Council were allowed to present their findings to Cabinet last week.

Below is a transcript of the presentation made by Mr Kenny.

“Good evening Cabinet Members and Councillors. My name is Mole Kenny of 38 Manor Road. I thank the chairman for this opportunity to address you on the petition, submitted in April, regarding the proposed closure of the Drewitt’s Court car park, Walton. it contained 602 signatures, mostly from residents of the Manor Road area.

I have also taken the liberty of sending you in advance of this meeting, a powerpoint presentation illustrating the salient points of my address and data sheets.

Manor Road has 16 adjoining roads (Cul de sacs, Avenues etc) feeding into it with only three entrances and four exits for vehicles, including the long established vehicle route through Drewitts Court car park. Of the entrances, two are hazardous to the residents who use them. the other, Drewitts Court car park is the safest and preferred vehicle route for locals. Any change to this exit will affect some 1140 electors and their families who live in the 780 dwellings locally. As a matter of interest, the number of dwellings has more than doubled in recent years with no improvement in the road structure or layouts having been made.

 There are several other important considerations:

1. There are no safety or speeding statistics available to support a closure.
2. Improvements could be made as an alternative to this closure. The perceived problem could be due to inappropriate or inadequate road marking.
3. This exit is used by vehicles from two other directions than the car park itself.
4. Closure of this route would make  two other junctions  more hazardous, especially at the Hepworth Way/Playhouse Junction with Bridge Street, with several hundred additional right turns over a typical 24-hour period being forced.
5. Traffic congestion and pollution would increase, and much inconvenience and extra expense would be created for local Residents and Businesses.

We have also collected and have available data from extensive surveys of traffic flows in Hepworth Way and at the Terrace Road/Church Street junction during the morning and evening rush hours.

The closure would cause even more gridlock in Hepworth Way, and divert even more traffic in both directions through Manor Road, which is already used by frustrated drivers as a “Rat Run”

Thank you Mr chairman, for giving me the opportunity to address the cabinet on this important subject.

Mr Kenny subsequently confirmed in writing what the Leader had stated at the meeting regarding this proposal which was as follows:

• This decision to close can not be taken immediately, and will be thoroughly looked at in detail in the future.
• Proposed new signage may be introduced.
• We have to look at access rights for Businesses.
• A traffic Engineers report will be requested
• This will all be done before any actions are taken.

We know that there are many other residents who were unable but wishing to sign the original petition, we request that they and everyone who did sign the original petition support Mr Kenny and Mr Woolgar during the campaign to reject this proposal.