Council to remove Sleaford street parking in bid to ease traffic near primary school

Parking spaces near a Lincolnshire[1] school will be available for parents during busy hours in a bid to reduce congestion in the area - despite a number of objections. New parking spots at William Alvey C of E Primary School, in East Gate in Sleaford[2], were discussed by councillors at a county council[3] planning meeting on Monday, January 8. Between 40 and 50 cars park along the busy street daily as parents pick up and drop off their children, which council officers say "creates problems in terms of obstruction for traffic flow".

To mitigate this, councillors voted in favour of using "underutilized" parking bays that require permits on nearby Ashfield Road, offering the spaces to non-permit holders to use for up to 40 minutes. Parking in East Gate would also be removed, through the extension of a single yellow line and the introduction of a no waiting at any time order on the south side of the road. The repurposed spaces would cater for around half of the vehicles displaced from East Gate if the plans were approved.

Poll: What's the best sandwich shop in Lincolnshire?[4] Recommendations were made by officers to overrule objections to the scheme, which mainly came from permit holders in East Gate and Ashfield Road. Critics of the plans argued that there are other alternative parking arrangements in Sleaford, such as the 12 spaces by Cogglesford Mill and the 172 along the rest of East Gate.

However, council officers felt that highway space could be used "more efficiently" by making the permit bays dual-purpose, after monitoring the use of existing spaces that required parking permits. Despite the vote being carried by a margin of eight in favour to three against, there were plenty of concerns raised in the meeting around whether these plans go far enough to address traffic problems in the area, particularly during school run hours. Cllr Marianne Overton of the Lincolnshire Independents said it was "difficult" to process.

She said: "What I'm really concerned about is whether we've provided a sufficient alternative. If parents have nowhere to park, that causes a problem too. "I don't think this is going to be enough to resolve the problem.

I would like to see some more alternatives that could be provided, even if some of the verge where people park at the moment could become a lay-by." Cllr Paula Ashleigh-Morris, from Boston, said: "I would have thought the people who paid for parking permits will all of a sudden find, particularly in a morning, that altering the bays isn't going to make a hell of a lot of difference. "I would have felt there'd be a real pinch point around 8am when everyone is still parked there. We budge school parking around so much, I think this perhaps needs another look because several of the solutions don't seem like solutions to me."

Fellow Conservative Thomas Smith concurred with councillors Ashleigh-Morris and Overton on the amendment plan, saying he has "a lot of sympathy with the objections" and fears this will "kick the can down the road" before the issue arises again in the future. He said: "If I was paying for a permit and that was my property, I would be quite upset and aggrieved myself. Schools simply do not have the land to accommodate the level of parking of parents that is now customary."

William Alvey C of E Primary School has been contacted for comment.

References

1. ^ Lincolnshire (www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk)
2. ^ Sleaford (www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk)
3. ^ county council (www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk)
4. ^ What's the best sandwich shop in Lincolnshire? (xd.wayin.com)