Kingsway Villagers

Hi Barry & Clive

Back at the Residents meeting before last we had a gentleman (sorry can’t remember his name) from QUVL talking to us.

We were told that the pavements along Thatcham Ave were being resurfaced, and true to his word they were done and if I’m not mistaken we were told that the roads would not be surfaced until the roads were to be adopted. I understand this, but we also told that all of the pot-holes in this road were to be filled in.

I’m not sure that with the somewhat heated debate that followed if this pot hole problem had been forgotten, but the pot holes seem to be getting worse as the months pass by! Especially as we are now on our way to the time of year that we all begin to dread with the frosts and icy mornings coming our way, which will only make a bad job even worse. It must be hell with the noise of  all those pot holes and traffic travelling over them for people living on Thatcham Ave.

Barry would it be possible for us to get in touch with QUVL, and ask if and when these pot holes will get filled in or our vehicles start to suffer from damage caused from constantly driving over these holes?

kevgee

I was coming home this morning along the A38 behind a car, which was following a Park and Ride bus. The traffic lights turned red in the usual fashion, and the bus driver drove straight through the red light!

He wasn’t driving fast along the road, but made no effort to stop.

Now I know he’s a heavy vehicle and takes longer to stop than a car, but the lights were red before he’d even got there and he most certainly could’ve and should have stopped!

He was either not watching the road, or just thought ‘stuff it’ and drove through.

With the thought of the number of accidents we’ve had at these lights and the fact that my wife uses the P&R, I was furious at this lack of respect for the safety of others, and so drove to the park and ride to confront him.

He was very dismissive of the whole episode and tried to justify why he went through the red light. Giving reasons like “they just changed suddenly” and “we’ve complained about those lights so many times” and “I had 15 passengers on board, and couldnt stop”.

Lights don’t suddenly change! If you think there is a problem, slow down in that area, so you have enough time to stop.

It was 9:00am – 15 passengers returning to the park and ride at that time of the morning? I think not; in fact I witnessed only two getting off the bus.

Whatever the reasons, I’ve no doubt in my mind he could’ve stopped without an issue, just chose not to, and in the process endangered the lives of others. This, from a supposedly professional driver.

I thought I read on here somewhere that there was talk of putting cameras up on the lights to catch people like this.

It gets my support…

Attention Kingsway Village: Important Notice

Following the Residents Association Meeting on 14th May 2010, I reported that Andy Smith (QUVL Project Manager) said:

the QUVL plans to examine all the roads and have the double-yellow lines repainted so that they’re clearly visible

Andy has been in touch recently and said:

Yellow Lines will be done on 4th, 5th & 6th of August.

We will have CPS enforcement on site who will temporarily lift any cars out of the way to enable the lining, and replace them afterwards…

It would be a great help if people didn’t park in Thatcham Ave and Valley Gardens on these dates to mimimise any “Where has my car gone?” questions.

I will pass the word along to my neighbours and recommend that everybody takes this advice… the fewer cars there are, the quicker the job will be done!

Before anyone asks: I don’t know the exact plans… We’ll have to wait & see

I live in Marham Drive and I am sick to death of the inconsiderate people living in Thatcham Ave and opposite Marham Drive who continually park in the entrance.

I know where they live and the cars they drive, they all have adequate off road parking space but constantly park in and opposite Marham. I can imagine that this will only get worse when and if yellow lines are added.

As I type this one of their cars is parked in the entrance tonight. It is extremely dangerous and my wife witnessed a near miss with another “Marham parker” earlier. This person came extremely fast around the corner, avoiding the other Thatcham car and almost having a head on collision with a car exiting. This person looking sheepish then drove off and parked near to their house! It is nightmare trying to exit in the morning with these parked cars.

I fully appreciate that there are road works going on at the minute. But these people have ample of road parking and are too lazy to use it or park a bit further down Thatcham Ave.

I respect those living in Thatcham who are parking considerately, but despise the others who do not and live in the vicinity of Marham Drive. These few bottom feeders are giving the other good people of Thatcham a bad name. So if you are one of those and are reading this: MOVE YOUR CAR TO WHERE YOU LIVE!

I could not care less if you think I have no community spirit – I am sick of these people who continually park here, particularly when they do not live in Marham Drive and are causing a danger to others.

Hi all,

I have been living on Thatcham Ave for 2.5 years now and would agree with Barry’s comments regarding where do visitors and friends park. The parking issue really needs addressing and a compromise must be found.

I find it very sad that neighbours have already fallen out over this issue. The end of the day we all have to live here. You can’t put yellow lines all the way down a road and give no alternative parking. This is not a solution and in fact has caused more bad feelings because residents and visitors have to then park in the smaller roads off Thatcham Ave and fight over the few spaces available.

We only have one parking space in front of our garage that is behind our house. We are unable to park our car in the garage because like so many other people we use it for storage. We were told by the developer on a site visit that the loft in our townhouse was not built for storage of heavy items! I would be keen to hear if anyone else was told this?

We did raise our concern about parking with the sales office and were told that we could park on Thatcham Ave’ and there was no need to be concerned. Had we known about the double yellow lines before we purchased the property we would have bought somewhere else.

Kingsway is conveniently situated to the motorway and people that commute were bound to be attracted to living here. They are even talking about changing Junction 12 due to the increased volumes of traffic. We have to be realistic and practical, not everyone can cycle to work or has a direct route using public transport. Most of the houses are 3-4 bed family homes, but no one appears to have considered the parking required when building.

There is no easy solution, however if you drive around other estates in the area and even in town there are roads a lot narrower than Thatcham Ave and yet they seem to be allowed to park on one side of the road and have no issues. Am I missing something here?

There are idiots and inconsiderate people who do cause obstructions on the pavement and park on both sides of the road making it difficult for everyone and these people should be clamped, but for the rest of us who just want to get on with life and not have to worry about where am I going to park, is that really the answer?

I also don’t understand why people who have a driveway that can accommodate 2 or more cars insist on still parking on the road? This really frustrates me. I do not park outside my house because I’m lazy I literally don’t have anywhere else to park, so please can people be less quick to judge and stop suggesting that people use their garage and drive as this is not helpful.

Would parking permits at least help solve the visitor parking issue?

Hi all,

anyone know what’s going on with the wheel clamping in Kingsway?

I rang the Project Manager some time ago to ask what was happening, as clamping had started on Thatcham Avenue (around 12 months ago). He told me that TA was not part of the clampers remit and got them to remove all the signs etc…

This morning I woke up to find a car outside being clamped by CPS (those of crimewatch fame) and when I asked the chap what was going on he said they’d been asked to start clamping on the street again a couple of weeks back and he pointed to 1 sign on the first lampost on Thatcham Avenue (I haven’t seen any more anywhere else… ‘though there may be, in my opinion it’s not clear but hey ho)!

Tried to ring the Kingsway Village people but couldn’t get through.

I’m a bit concerned about this occuring again. Is this still because the road hasn’t been taken on by the Council and thus these cowboys are free to do what they want?

Can anyone fill me in?

Many Thanks,

T