Kingsway Highways – From The Horses Mouth!
Created by markFollowing all the speculation and rumour that is rife about the adoption (or otherwise) of the Kingsway highways, I have spoken to Jamie Mattock (female) who is a Highways Officer for Glos City Council about the matter.
The main road through Kingsway (i.e. Woodvale), in it’s entirety has a section 106 agreement which means that it will be adopted by the council Highways Dep’t in the future, at an unspecified time. The hold up is with the drainage system and the balancing ponds which will need to be adopted by Severn Trent Water. If the drainage is not agreed then the Highway Dep’t can’t adopt the roads & drainage underneath the road itself.
The roads off the main route e.g. Thatcham Avenue, Valley Gardens etc are not due to be adopted and the developers have not entered into a Section 38 agreement to do so either. This is why there are no road markings on these once you turn off Woodvale.
Thus all the estate roads directly off Woodvale are not due to be adopted and there are no legal agreements yet in place or pending for them to be adopted in the future. The emphasis is on all the individual developers to maintain these public areas indefinitely.
The highways officer suggested that the home zones and private roads to them, do however provide access for public utilities vehicles, deliveries, municipal vehicles (refuse), post vans and also fire appliances, police etc. The Police would have powers to stop people parking – but only if they are causing a serious obstruction to these vehicles.
There are also pedestrian safety issues which The Police can address such as the speed islands which incorporate lowered kerbs and designated pedestrian crossing points that are currently being obscured by inconsiderate parking on the pavements. This was my original reason for opening this can of worms!
So in a nutshell, with the exception of Woodvale, no roads in Kingsway are scheduled to be adopted by The Council.
For that to change, QUVL would have to request a legal agreement with The Council.
The upshot is that none of us can do anything about the inconsiderate parking around the estate unless it can be considered dangerous, in which case The Police can intervene.
The developers can employ private means (e.g. clampers etc) if they choose to, but given current economic conditions I think this unlikely.
I hope that this clarifies the situation on this much discussed matter for everyone once and for all.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 10:08 am
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December 11th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hi Mark,
Thanks a lot for this post / information… very interesting.
Top Man
December 12th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
So does this mean that if we do see someone parked in a very dangerous position which could endanger someone’s life, we use your Community Police Report form. If so, how long will it take for them to respond?
Should we just phone direct?
Ta
December 13th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Hi lja,
The community Police report would be forwarded to the local Police immediately and they will respond (as necessary) as soon as they deem appropriate.
In addition, all reports submitted are collated over each period and used to determine how local Community Police resources are utilised in the future.
For instance in our previous meeting, speeding in Hardwicke and Quedgeley were seen as current problems, so the Police launched an operation to clamp down on speeding cars in those areas (more info’ here).
So if enough people submit reports about any one subject/area of crime/ASB, the chances are that that subject/area will be the focus of Police attention in the near future.
For urgent issues, a call to the Quedgeley Police Station (and 999 for emergencies) is better.