URGENT CONSIDERATION ON PARKING ABUSE ON OUR HIGH STREET

RECENT COLLISION OUTSIDE THE COOP STORE, HIGH STREET

An officer from the serious collision unit, Warwickshire Police, contacted the JPC expressing his concern, after attending the recent serious collision, where an elderly pedestrian had been struck by a car which was passing a parked vehicle outside of the Coop.

He went on to say that on viewing CCTV at the time of the accident, he witnessed ‘a steady stream of vehicles parking on the double yellow lines’ he went on to say, ‘these vehicles would all have caused a hazard and potential danger’.

He finished by asking the JPC for ‘any support, suggestion or intervention to tackle this matter’.

The JPC efforts to lobby senior officials in both the WCC and Warwickshire Police for traffic calming measures such as average speed cameras is not helped by the fact that a survey carried out on our stretch of the A34 two years ago, revealed that average speed along the High Street was less than thirty miles per hour, aided ironically, by the parked cars outside the Coop and One Stop, which act as a traffic calming device.

The JPC are now considering the use of railings, [Assuming permissions sought and agreed] already used at the pedestrian crossing between Henley Bakery and the old Lloyd’s Bank buildings. The new railings outside the Coop-One Stop stretch, with the addition of yellow no-parking boxes and two disabled parking bays, would tend to make illegal parking very difficult, by forcing errant drivers to walk along the road to gaps in the railings left for driveways, and disabled parking access and offloading.

The railings would also stop people, or more especially children, from exiting the shops and crossing the street directly, persuading them to make use of the adjacent controlled crossings.

The new railings, though utilitarian, could be made attractive and in keeping with the High Street facade.

Please use the comment box to help the JPC formulate a coherent plan to stop the inevitable fatality waiting to happen, all of your ideas will be welcomed.

 

Ray Evans – Chairman JPC