Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Oakham Parking Matters, Rutland County Council, Cabinet Meeting 19th August 2014, Video and meeting report



Rutland County Council Conservative Cabinet met this morning to discuss various items including performance.

The point the public were interested in was moved forward, this was parking issues throughout the
county and Oakham.

Roger Begy was especially pleased with performance report in particular staff sickness below national average.

Roger Begy the Tory leader proved he was out of touch with reality when he started waffling on about
the councils the years of council failure to negotiate a solution to the parking issues near Brook Hill School. He was allowed to finish before some one pointed out planning permission had be agreed for a car park on Woodland Trust property and a lease would soon be agreed between the Woodland Trust and Oakham Town Council who will then let the school use the car park.

Whilst on the subject of planning applications the performance report once again highlight in red the failing
planning department.

During the discussions we learnt Roger Begy is expecting to live a couple more years thanks to the council as the report highlights male life expectancy within the authority has risen to the age he will soon be approaching.

We also learnt that Cllr Pocock owns a motor bike as a result of him questioning whether the Tory Deputy Leader Terry King should declare an interest, Cllr King is bike mad, so he will be pleased the cabinet agreed not to charge for parking motor bikes in council owned car parks.

I understand Anglian Water is upsetting bikers by charging them to park at Rutland Water.

The cabinet also agreed to introduce mobile phone payments for car park users.

It deferred a decision to allow one hour free parking for shoppers. Currently Uppingham Town Council
pay for this to happen in Uppingham.

Cllr King said he was concerned about fairness as he felt it was unfair for residents who live in Ketton should subsidise free parking in Oakham when they drive to Melton or Stamford to shop and pay there for parking.
What a silly Councillor many of us pay taxes that pay for services we don't use.

I can not see Oakham Town Council agreeing to this extra payout because experience shows they correctly see it as double taxation.

Parking restrictions and resident permits Northgate Oakham was deferred to 2nd September 2014.

Northgate like Station Road and many of Oakham's side roads does not have many parking if any parking
restrictions. Northgate is currently a good example of how parking restrictions are enforced to comply with the law. They should not be imposed to make money for the council and only implemented for safety reasons.

The Church Street end of Northgate is narrow and has double yellow lines on both sides. The rest is wide and has a number of unrestricted marked bays and restrictions at junctions. I can only see the councils reasons for wanting to implement restrictions is to make money.

Yellow lines are soon to appear in some of our prettier villages like Hambleton, Cllr King feels this is fine because he has visited various villages similar to Hambleton in the Cotswold and they have yellow lines.
He said Hambleton villager are fine with it because it is better and lesser than the alternative evils, whatever
they are?