The results of Peasedown St John’s biggest ever parking survey, which was conducted over the summer to seek residents’ views, have been released.
Put together by local councillors Nathan Hartley and Karen Walker, the project is part of a year-long campaign to address the on-going problem of parking and excess traffic around the village.
Nathan said: “Almost one year ago, in December 2013, a group of stakeholders attended a ‘Community Conversation’ at Idwal Close Hall in Peasedown St John to discuss the concerns and problems around parking within the centre of our village.
“At our meeting there was a broad consensus from those in attendance that parking and traffic, usually around the start and end of the school day, was a problem and solutions needed to be found to combat this for the future.”
Attendees included; Avon and Somerset PSCO Louise Jones; B&NES Parking Manager Chris Major; Peasedown St John Parish Council Chairman Andrew Fraser; Peasedown St John Primary School Headteacher David Tilling and Chair of Governors Linda Day; B&NES Traffic and Safety Manager Steve Blackmore; Hillcrest & Idwal Close residents; B&NES Schools Capital Projects Officer Fiona Randle; Peasedown Youth Centre Manager Bridie Marshall; Curo Housing Officer Steve Atkinson; and Peasedown Athletic Football Club Chairman Percy Clarke.
Not everyone agreed on which solution was best, but these ideas came forward:
- Build a new school in a less congested park of the village;
- Building a car park on a piece of land near to the school, such as the Recreation Ground, or on a Curo-owned piece of land such as those in Albert Avenue;
- Creating more incentives for parents/carers to walk their children to and from school;
- Coordinating a care share scheme for parents/carers;
- Building a drop off point at the front of the school.
Nathan added: “Recognising that this is a problem that has affected our whole community (over the years, its’ been one if the main issues residents have continually contacted Karen and I about) we wanted to put these suggestions out to the public for their views and comments.”
“During the summer, every household in Peasedown St John, Carlingcott and Braysdown received a survey asking for a) a preference for which of the options above they supported and b) if they could tell us about any parking problems in their own streets.
Karen Walker said: “To be clear (there was confusion from some who responded), the options consulted on were not ‘Nathan and Karen’s ideas’ – but rather ideas generated from those listed above.
“Our role has been to consult the public and see if a preference for one or another can be identified. Also, it’s important to note that not everyone at the meeting supported all the suggestions.
“We received 300 responses from a wide cross-section of the community, which has given us a strong indication for what the mood of villagers is.”
After several hours of analysis and collating the responses, Nathan and Karen can report these results:
When asked ‘Which of these options do you support?’, answers were divided as follows:
- Build a new school in a less congested park of the village 16%;
- Building a car park on a piece of land near to the school, such as the Recreation Ground, or on a Curo-owned piece of land such as those in Albert Avenue* 29%;
- Creating more incentives for parents/carers to walk their children to and from school 23%;
- Coordinating a care share scheme for parents/carers 12%;
- Building a drop off point at the front of the school 20%;
*Everyone who chose this option indicated that they believed the car park should be built on the Recreation Ground, and not one of the Curo-owned spaces in Albert Avenue.
Following on from the Community Conversation last year and the public survey this year, the next step is to take forward the preferred option.
Karen added: “This isn’t going to be easy or straight-forward, and some people will need convincing that another car park is ideal.
“Looking ahead to the future though, coupling together the extra housing that could be arriving in Greenland’s Road soon, and the desire that we’d all have for our local businesses and primary school to continue to flourish in the future, it’s clear that something needs to be done.
“The next decade will unfortunately see more vehicles on our village roads, not less.”
Whilst there are no plans to build a car park on the Recreation Field at present, any that are produced will show the car park in addition to the facilities already on site.
For instance, they’ll provide suitable parking for users of the football facilities and parents taking their children to the play park. Work will also need to be carried out to adjust the entrance to the site to make it safer for vehicles entering and exiting.
Nathan and Karen will soon present their findings to Peasedown St John Parish Council and Bath & North East Somerset Council, with a view to funding being sought.
1 Comment
Neil Hopkins
Monday 10th November, 2014 at 17:58If this survey was delivered to nearly 3,000 homes in and around PSJ and only 300 responded, and some of those were not clear as to was responsible for the ideas put forward and who was carrying out the survey then the survey was confused at least.
What are Nathan and Karen’s qualifications to carry out a meaningful statistical survey and then…… analyse the results?
It appears that less than 100 residents were then asked to choose between a car park on Curo land in Albert Avenue or the Recreation ground. They chose the Recreation Ground. No surprise there!
Karen and Nathan will now put this to PSJ PC and BANES as the choice of PSJ residents (probably less than 50 out of 3,000 households.)
I would suggest that this is seriously flawed surveying of public opinion.