In a second extract from the Mayor’s report to the recent annual Town Meeting, Councillor Jonathan Breeds takes up the issue of parking – and in particular problems like the photograph above taken in Lion Street.
The town’s Highways Forum is due to meet next Tuesday, March 21, with both parking and speeding on the agenda, and Rother District Council gets an update on Monday March 20 on how soon parking meters may appear.
“Rye, Battle, Bexhill and the larger villages in the Rother District are continuing to experience inconsiderate, dangerous and unlawful parking on a daily basis – causing bad feeling, congestion, and damage to pavements,” he said.
“The position of Sussex Police remains unchanged – (aside from an infrequent blitz) it will enforce on street parking restrictions only if a parked vehicle is deemed to be a hazard – and there are officers available to attend. Since there are now no PCSOs based in Rye this appears to have become an even rarer occurrence.
The main alternative to Police enforcement – or lack of it – is decriminalised parking, or Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE). Discussions have taken place between East Sussex County Council (which would be responsible for the introduction and operation or any scheme), Rother District Council and Wealden District Council.
Rother is considering whether to support the introduction of CPE and, if so, what form it should take. Hopefully, Rother will reach a firm decision by the summer.”
[Editor’s note : Rother Councillors apparently visited Rye this week as their private coach parked at the public bus stops in Station Approach, twice blocking the community bus which serves mainly the elderly and disabled. This incident is being investigated. Private coaches usually pay to park in the station car park in specially reserved bays]
“The Town Council has chosen not to support CPE at this stage because there is no information on what a suitable scheme could look like. For example, we do not know whether CPE would mean having to pay to park on Rye’s streets, which streets – and whether there would be a requirement for unsightly, and potentially obstructive, ticket machines.
The Town Council has, however, agreed to look into the use of CCTV, which may deter drivers from parking inappropriately.
Committee changes
I am aware that some of you were a little surprised – and disappointed – that the Council decided to disband its Public Services Committee, which consisted or councillors, community organisation representatives, and citizens with specialist knowledge.
We concluded, with some reluctance, that the committee was no longer fulfilling its original purpose – it had principally become a means for smaller community organisations to disseminate updates to other community organisations and councillors.
Instead, it was agreed that any written updates received from organisations would be distributed to councillors – and groups or councillors could ask for specific issues to be placed on an appropriate Council or committee agenda.
Neighbourhood Plan
Once again it is only right and proper that the Council should publicly acknowledge the considerable volume of work being undertaken by the Rye Neighbourhood Plan Vice-Chairman, Colonel Anthony Kimber. You will have received his progress report as you arrived – and so I won’t say too much.
In summary, the current position is that, subjecting to some minor updating and tweaking, the Town Council has approved the Draft Plan and the Strategic Environmental Assessment is now being tidied up with the help of a planning consultant, prior to submission to Rother for the first formal public consultation.
Speeding on A259
The Council was pleased to have been invited by New Road residents to a site meeting between them, Highways England and our County Councillor, Keith Glazier, to discuss the excessive speeding – as well as reckless overtaking – between Monkbretton Bridge and the national speed limit signs, heading east. Highways England has agreed to monitor vehicle speeds, and there appears to be scope for introducing traffic calming measures.
The Council has also received a request from the Rye A259 Bypass Action Group – set up by residents of South Undercliff – for support for the introduction of a 20mph speed restriction throughout the whole of Rye. The Council has asked the Rye Highways Forum due to meet next Tuesday, March 21, to look into this in more detail with a view to identifying those streets where a 20mph limit would have greatest impact.
Infrastructure
Last year, Rother introduced a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charging scheme. It applies to most new developments with an internal floor space above 100sqm. The receipts generated must be used for the provision, improvement or maintenance of local infrastructure.
Legally, 15% of the receipts have to be passed to the parish or town council in which the development lies; however, parish councils with an adopted Neighbourhood Plan receive 25%.
Although the Town Council has yet to receive CIL monies, we have agreed the kinds of infrastructure projects we will be looking to fund. Top of the list is improving the safety of pedestrians and vulnerable road users in Station Approach.
Photos: Rye News library
New parking at station urgently needed to found. As the prospect of HS1 to Hastings and Rye is looking more and more certain the Town needs to address how it will deal with parking adjacent to station especially on Thursdays.
Note to the Editor:
The minibus transporting the Rother Councillors parked on the bus stop (instead of on the bus stand on the post office side of Station Approach or in the Station car park) – the Rye & District Community Transport bus impeded was running the 326 service which is a scheduled route that anyone can use. Other buses (312, 313, 100, 101) were also affected. The coach company has apologised and explained that their driver was unable to get onto the bus stand as intended because of the coning off of the carriageway by the contractors carrying out works to utility services on the pavement outside Jempson’s.
These new meter who going to be monitoring them as we’ve haven’t any pcos and no traffic wardens.
These Meters are long overdue, let’s have a level playing field for all motorists accessing Rye, two hours only, else use our many car parks, if you wish to stay longer.
The Bus Stand that Pat Hughes refers is not for private coaches. The RDC Official coach driver should know this!
Secondly, it is for local buses only and then parking is for just 5 minutes, while the RDC coach was parked up there for 25 minutes. There are large yellow signs clearly stating these rules!
The coning off is a complete red herring since what was going on outside the front of Jempsons is completely irrelevant!
Coaches should and must park in the coach park outside the station where there were lots of spaces available when the RDC Official coach decided to flout the law!
I really think more parking around the station, is not a problem for our council to address, under used gibbet’s marsh is not too far away for commuters to use on a Thursday, especially as they are only using the town for commuting.