Decision on East Wichel parking still months away
In a marathon community meeting on Wednesday, once again one of the main topics of discussion was parking in East Wichel. A report from the community police officer also generated a lot of debate.
Earlier in the meeting, the community police officer for East Wichel, Sophia Best, gave an update on crime and disorder. Reported crime levels in East Wichel are low, similar to those in Lawns or Broome Manor, she said, with much of the crime and antisocial behaviour mentioned on local Facebook groups going unreported. Sophia, whose area also includes Old Town, Okus and Lawns, encouraged anyone who had experienced crime or antisocial behaviour to report it by calling 101 or, for emergencies only, 999. Criminal damage in-progress should also be reported on 999, she said. Even though, particularly on busy evenings, they may not be able to respond to reports of minor disorder, information provided would help them take action against known troublemakers. Non-emergency information could also be reported to her team, using the neighbourhood policing team email address ().
PC Best also reported that drivers of over 160 vehicles had been given ‘advice’ for using the bus gate at the Croft Road end of East Wichel, many using it as a shortcut to Nationwide’s head office. When the police returned on a later date and issued fixed penalty notices, quite a few of those caught had been amongst those they had previously spoken to.
Parking restrictions and road adoption
Parking restrictions to be enforced – again
Council consults on changes to parking restrictions
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Thank you for the update. Hopefully Councillor Gary Perkins will be receiving a lot of responses to this although I think there’s nothing to discuss. All East Wichel residents should have known about the parking restrictions and the council should implement them as intended – there really should be no debate. The initial Wichelstowe masterplan was very clear in its intent with the statement on parking clearly visible here (http://wichelstowe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/100521-Wichelstowe-Parking-Statement.pdf). People who have parking spaces, garages and/or driveways should be fined if they don’t use them in preference of taking the lazy option and parking on the road outside their… Read more »
The council’s parking statement was written in May 2010. The first houses were occupied in 2009 and Sovereign was not good at informing its tenants about the parking restrictions. Those that bought houses later if they didn’t find the notice themselves would have been dependent on their conveyancer to notice or on the house builder to pass the information on. Both should have done that, but some are better than others. As to who was responsible, the council was following national guidelines, and other developments in Swindon at the time were called in by government because they didn’t pack the… Read more »
While it is unfortunate that some later buyers may not have been informed of the restrictions by their conveyancer, surely it is up to them to seek redress from the conveyancer for not doing a proper job with the legal work? It also would not have been beyond the wit of Taylor Wimpey and the council to have clearly signposted the fact that the estate would eventually be subject to parking restrictions. Of course, the cynic in me says that it was not in the interest of either to do this as it would have hurt sales on the estate.… Read more »