swampedbycars

Friday 22nd July. Latest update on WLPS

2011-07-22T12:31:00.000+01:00

The implementation of the West Loughborough Parking Study has slipped another week. The distribution of detail plans to houses covered by the proposed scheme will now start on Monday 25th July and the block advert in the Echo will appear next Thursday in the Friday 29th edition. There will still be a six week consultation period and the library exhibition remains will still be held on Thursday 18th August.

The SbC team would like to remind everyone that, whatever comments you made previously on this consultation will NOT be carried forward. If you have comments then you must make them again during the consultation period. If you think it will help, try and get together with your neighbours to agree a common approach. If half want a scheme and half don't you are putting the Council in a very difficult position; it would be much better to have a clear agreement on what you want and then there is a good chance of securing that outcome.

Sat 9th July. West Loughborough Parking Study.

2011-07-09T10:23:00.000+01:00

We reported earlier that the WLPS has moved from Highways into the new Traffic Management Deapartment at Leics County Council. David Wright is the new Team Manager and he will be leading the implementation of this much delayed scheme from now on.

1. The first phase of implementation will begin in the week starting 18th July. A letter and plan will be delivered to all houses in the area covered by the proposals.
2. An advertisement describing the scheme proposals displayed Loughborough Echo on 21st July.
3. There will be a six week consultation period for responses from the public.The response period runs from the 18th July to 26th August.
4. There will be a public display of the plans in Loughborough Library on Thursday 18th August with Traffic Management Staff available for consultation.
5. Implementation. Sometime in 2012.

L'boro South West Area Forum. Mon 11th July 6pm. All welcome

2011-07-09T10:09:00.002+01:00

The next meeting of our Local Area Forum will be held on Monday 11th July at 6pm at the Holywell Free Church, next to Holywell School on Berkeley Road. All local residents are welcome to attend.
The Invitation states Information and networking session from 6pm and on this part of the Agenda are, The West Loughborough Parking Study, Police, an opportunity to speak to our local beat officer, and Community members, representatives and our local Ward Councillors.
There appears to be a formal agenda, as well, with a public question time.

See our top/next entry on this blog for the latest details of the West Loughborough Parking Study.

West L'boro Parking Study news 25th June

2011-06-25T09:40:00.000+01:00

We have heard unconfirmed reports of reorganisation at the County Council's Highways Department. We understand that the two divisions, Transport and Highways are splitting into separate groups. The team leader, previously responsible for WLPS, Mike Sheldrake, will remain in Highways whilst Transport will take over the West Loughborough Parking Study. Inevitably there will be further delays.

House Keeping for May/June

2011-06-09T09:28:00.006+01:00

There hasn't been an entry since before the last local elections as there hasn't been anything to report. We were told that the next round of the West Loughborough Parking Study would be played out immediately after the local elections on the 5th May 2011. However, a couple of weeks later one of our regular correspondents tried the Highways Helpline to ask when the WLPS was starting? He then passed this new information back to the SwampedbyCars team; 'not until August or September' he was told.

Considering that a lot of time and energy was expended by our MP, Nicky Morgan and councillors Jane Hunt, Peter Lewis and the staff at County Hall, we are a little bit surprised that the parking scheme has been put back again. Naturally, this new information led to a flurry of 'phone calls and the very latest news we have, as of the 9th June; is that the whole scheme will be advertised at the end of June in the Loughborough Echo, that there will be a slightly longer, final, consultation process. And to make the detailed information more accessible, the plans will be displayed in the Town Library. Watch this space for further updates.

In case anyone missed the local election I am pleased to announce that Jane Hunt. our very hard working councillor remains as one of our Conservative councillors and she is joined by Margaret Smidowicz JP. who has made a very good start getting to know as many people in the Ward as possible. Jane is promoted to the Borough Council's Cabinet and Margaret will be sitting on the Planning Committee. Peter Lewis who stood down as one of our local councillors this year remains as our County Councillor and he has been chosen as Deputy Leader of the County Council and Leader designate for the following year. So we are represented by an excellent team.

Whilst nothing to do directly with SwampedbyCars, some local residents in Spinney Hill Drive have been campaigning hard to stop the University siting their new MUGAS's [3 multi-use-games-areas] open from 8.am to 11.pm and floodlit very close to the back gardens of their houses on the long length of Spinney Hill Drive. Objections were based on closeness to the homes and gardens meaning the residents would suffer, noise, light pollution and disturbance seven days a week. SbC was also concerned that a facility of this size would also attract many students from the town to play and they would park in both Spinney Hill and The Coniston Crescent area as they would not be allowed to park on campus. Even though it was the first meeting of the brand new Planning Committee and the first item on the agenda, the councillors voted unanimously to refuse the application. Local residents have assured me that they are not against MUGA's for the students, just not at this location, so close to the University's nearest neighbours. We hope the University sees sense and finds an alternative site for what will be their noisiest facility.

And finally, the University has released information that they are adopting the new parking fees for staff and students from September making the most expensive parking space £300 a year should the driver have a vehicle with a high CO2 tariff. Naturally we urge all residents to report any changes in the pattern of parking that the imposition of these charges may bring. We have been assured that the registration process for student cars, being kept either at the University or in the Town, will be collected in a more formal manner from September this year and that the information should be more reliable.

Jane Hunt standing in by-election for MP

2011-03-28T11:38:00.005+01:00

Jane Hunt, one of Nanpantan Ward's local councillors, is to stand for Parliament at the Leicester South by-election on May 5th as the Conservative Candidate. This election will be held on the same day as the local elections for our Borough Council; will Jane be standing for both positions? She has until April 4th to confirm her decision, the closing date for the announcement of candidates in the local election. The vacancy for an MP in Leicester South arises because Sir Peter Soulsby MP is standing down so he can campaign as the Labour Candidate for Leicester's first directly elected mayor.

Local Elections 5th May 2011

2011-03-28T11:05:00.007+01:00

On March 2nd, at the request of the local Conservative party, the SwampedbyCars team met some of the new Conservative candidates who will be standing in the Local Elections. We had been asked to explain our campaign and give our views on the parking problems affecting the roads closest to the University and how the excess of student cars is causing problems for the town. When we met the candidates we had agreed not to go public with the news that Peter Lewis is standing down from the Nanpantan Ward and that the empty seat will be contested by Margaret Smidowicz JP. As this news is now public, we no longer need to keep it under wraps. At that time we believed that Jane Hunt would continue as one of our two Conservative councillors. See our next post for up-to-date news on Jane. Having met some of the Conservative candidates we then suggested to Max Hunt, leader of the local Labour Party, that we would be willing to meet some of the Labour party members standing either in Nanpantan Ward or nearby wards that suffer similar parking problems. We were very pleased to meet four of their new candidates including Ruth Sinclair and Mike Cahill who will be standing in Nanpantan Ward on the 14th March. Ruth and Mike now have circulated their local election address in this area and on the back of the letter they are asking for; the issues that most concern you and what you would like them to focus on? This is your chance to get the message across, there are too many student cars being brought to the town and the town can't cope. The Borough Council has the power, working with the University, to control this problem.

University changing its parking rules

2011-02-21T11:52:00.006Z

Loughborough University is changing its Campus Parking Strategy as part of its new Green Travel Plan. In fairness to the University these changes are being made in the spirit of improving its green travel credentials by encouraging more walking cycling, and car sharing.

However, it will be done by imposing huge increases in the cost of parking on campus. From £60 for staff and students to a sliding scale of £140 to £300 depending on car emissions. We have heard from campus unions that many staff are very upset at these increased charges. We have been warned to expect more staff and students to avoid the parking charge by dumping their cars on our streets.
When we presented our petition to the CBC we drew attention to many previous decisions, made by the University, that have knock-on consequences for the local community. This is another decision that should go before the Council for agreement/approval as it will have impact on residents.
In our petition to CBC we anticipated there would be huge rises in parking charges because of the last Government's 'Workplace Parking Charge' Act so we asked that both staff and student car registrations should be collected. The CBC Scrutiny Panel agreed and this was included; yet, at the last moment the University convinced CBC Cabinet to drop the requirement for collecting staff car registrations. SwampedbyCars immediately objected because we knew that at some time in the future parking charges would rise and more staff cars would be left on our streets.

Before CBC approves the University's new Green Travel Plan we urge that they require the University to collect staff car registrations and they be acted upon by the security patrols in our area.

You can read the University's proposals at the following link

http://www.fileswap.com/dl/ABRCMe7/Uni_Car_Park_Strategy_Plan_Feb_2011.doc.html

or at http:/tinyurl.com/6kjtwpy

Whilst we applaud the University's green improvements it has to done with the full cooperation of its staff and students.
[students living in Halls of residence, on campus, are currently charged £120 for their parking permit]

LCC Parking Study. The detail process revealed

2011-02-21T10:32:00.006Z

The West Loughborough Parking Study will go to final advertising in the local press in May 2011. This will be the last chance for you to comment on the plans before they are implemented.

To read the Highways Dept. proposals for the advertising scheme click on the link below.
http://www.fileswap.com/dl/usgvofB4/West_Lough._Parking_Study_from_M_Sheldrake_18.02.11.doc.html

or at http://tinyurl.com/6cgqeqw

You should know that in certain areas there is no clear agreement as to what changes should be made, if any. It would really help if the residents of Coniston Crescent and the residents of Ashleigh/Mountfield could present a CLEAR view of what you want. For instance, in the Ashleigh area half want a residents' parking scheme and half don't, according to our information from the Highways Dept.

The recommendations of the CBC Parking Panel started to be implemented this year. University Security patrols are noting parked cars twice a day and then warning and fining repeat offenders. We have been told that there is a some improvement in the Ashleigh Drive area. And next year the registration of student cars will be part of the student enrolment process so further improvement can be anticipated.

However, the next post on this site contains important information about changes in the Universities parking rules!

WLPS Latest. Nicky Morgan MP wins reprieve.

2011-02-13T12:39:00.005Z

The SwampedbyCars team have been in correspondence with Nicky Morgan MP and her assistant Jane Hunt, one of our local councillors, for some time about the West Loughborough Parking Study. Three weeks ago the Highways Department announced that the WLPS could no longer be funded this year and future funding looked doubtful. However, the outcry from across the town from both residents and councillors led to a meeting between LCC Highways Department and our MP and Jane Hunt on Friday 11th Feb.

We have been told by Nicky Morgan that the meeting was successful and the Highways Department have agreed to progress the WLPS by advertising it formally (part of the process for implementation) in May this year. The adverts will detail all the changes proposed for each separate area of the town so that each component of the scheme can be considered separately. In other words it will be possible for parts of the scheme to be implemented rather than the whole.

This will be your opportunity to comment on the detail proposals and indicate your support or opposition to the scheme proposed for your area.

New Parking proposals at the University

2011-02-13T12:08:00.006Z

Following SbC's petition to CBC in 2009 and the Scrutiny Panel Report in 2010, that placed certain actions on the University, together with a Planning Requirement attached to their new East Park Design Building, the University is proposing new parking policies for staff and students.

New charges are proposed for staff and students. A ramped scale depending on car emissions, from £140 to £300 for a high emissions vehicle but zero for a near zero emission vehicle, similar to the London Congestion Charge. The present charge is £60 for both staff and students, although students living on campus are charged £120. There will be an increase in the number of pay and display car parks to cope with occasional visitors or those that choose to walk or cycle on most days.

These proposals are part of the University's revised Green Travel Plan that will promote walking, cycling and car sharing, to reduce the carbon footprint, reduce local traffic congestion and overspill parking on residential roads. A more frequent bus service is proposed with free travel on campus for students. Management of the scheme to be supplemented with the use of ANPR technology (Automated Number Plate Recognition).

Naturally the SbC team will be examining the proposals in detail when they are revealed to the public next month. Our concern will be for the unexpected consequences of the new policy such as an increase in students, and possibly staff, refusing to pay the new charges and trying to find parking on residential roads as an alternative. The recently introduced car registration scheme for students and the new Security patrols give us some confidence that our area will be protected but we don't want other areas of the town to suffer an increase in parking.

End of Jan 2011

2011-02-03T14:48:00.002Z

Information received by SwampedbyCars is that the number of students fined by the University for parking in our controlled area since October is now in excess of 120, as recorded at the end of Jan.

Who are you going to call? Update Jan 2011.

2011-01-28T12:16:00.002Z

If you are suffering from a student/university parking problem this is the first place to call. (Please record the car registration/s and have it by you when you call.)

Loughborough University Security 24 hour line. 01509 222141
Alison Barlow Community Community Relations Officer. 01509 228696
Alison can also be e mailed on A.J.Barlow@lboro.ac.uk

For our Local Police Team this is the contact information we have.
Neighbourhood Sergeant. Chris Wharton (1865)
PC Mike Green (1845)
PC Rachel Sharpe (4671)
Community Support Officers
Clare Mant (6065)
Shaheen Abdullah (6663)

To contact them, phone Leicester 0116 222 2222
Follow the instructions when prompted and enter the officers I.D. Number (shown in Brackets by their name) and leave a message.

There are student residents in this area and they may have cars. It is only those students, staff or vistors to the University that park in this area to access the University that are breaking our Traffic Regulation Order. SbC

West Loughborough Parking Study - Latest, Jan 2011

2011-01-28T11:52:00.003Z

On Friday 21st January we were alerted that there was a problem implementing the results of the West Loughborough Parking Study. A review had taken place inside the County Council Highway's Department and it was established that the £50,000 previously budgeted to implement the WLPS was no longer available. [SbC have no idea at all if a press release made on the same day, about another matter, was related. The Highways Department announced that a review had found further monies to repair the severe winter damage to the County's roads.] A further review will take place in April/May 2011, however we were warned that, given the severe financial cut backs being faced by the County Council and the amount of work necessary to prepare the next Local Transport Plan (3), this may be difficult.

There are many residents of Loughborough, outside our area, that will be extremely disappointed at this news. The residents of Kingfisher Way, Outwoods Drive, Goods Yard Close and Wheeltappers Way, together with further work promised in the Ashby Road to Garendon Road area are now in abeyance. These areas suffer substantial parking problems and SbC will continue to press that they receive early implementation of their parking schemes. Local Councillors are extremely upset as well and we can expect them, and our MP Nicky Morgan, to be pressing the County Council for the earliest implementation or possibly even a fractional response that would allow the areas suffering the most to be treated separately. A meeting of the LCC Highways Dept deputy, our MP and Local Councillor will be held by the end of the second week in February.

December 2010 Update

2011-01-28T11:27:00.004Z

In December Anne Kingston of SwampedbyCars had a meeting with Alison Barlow the Community Relations Officer at the University. We were given an update on how the University has been implementing the CBC Panel Report, that was in response to our 2009 petition. We didn't publish this information at that time partly because it was going to be announced at the Campus Liaison Meeting on the 12th January and partly because of the 'flu that so many people in Loughborough were suffering over the Christmas period. Sorry. You can check below in this Blog for the full recommendations of the panel report but in short, the University and Loughborough College agreed to register student cars being brought to the town and use the Security Team to patrol the streets covered by the Transport Regulation Order, that prevents Staff and Student parking on our roads, and to take action as necessary. This is the information we were given in December; 1526 university students had registered a car by the end of October, another 436 were added to the register when they passed through the security barrier. From the patrols 43 students have been warned about parking in our area and of those 14 have been fined for a repeat offence. A further 15 students have had a formal warning for having a car when their accommodation terms included a 'no car' clause. These students have been warned to leave their cars at home or lose their accommodation. We were also told that the student enrolment in September 2011 will be strengthened to help ensure that as many student cars as possible are registered. The University's new Green Travel Plan, to encourage more walking and cycling to the campus for both staff and students will be ready in the summer. We think it would be helpful if the the Security Vehicles carry a sign, 'Parking Patrol', to warn and advise both students and residents. As you can see from the above, progress is being made. However there are still problem areas and we will be pressing for more action to be taken in the Coniston Crescent, Derwent Drive and Holywell Drive area, nearest the footpath entrance to the University, particularly around exam times in January and May/June when the Library is opening 24/7.

October 2010 Update

2010-10-05T16:22:00.002+01:00

There hasn't been a blog post since May because almost nothing has been happening relating to SwampedbyCars. Now that the new academic term has started at the university we can bring you up-date with a small amount of news.

The University has agreed to patrol the roads covered by the Traffic Regulation Order. Two security patrols a day, at random times, will collect registration numbers of those cars parked in the control area. As the University is now recording student car registrations it has the ability to identify student cars and issue warnings to those who are breaking the University regulation that prohibits staff, students and visitors from parking in the controlled area between Forest Road and the campus and from Conway Crescent to the end of the service road on Ashby Road.

Contact details will be confirmed shortly.

You may remember the West Loughborough parking Study that initially proposed making our area a residents' preference parking zone. We campaigned to reduce the proposals as we didn't want to be swamped with student cars, parking in the permit bays or having student parking in the evenings or at weekends. The County Council Highways Department are still going ahead with a reduced scheme but it is much delayed for operational reasons. However, we have been assured by Mr Sheldrake, the team leader for this project, that it is still progressing and even though there may be finance cuts at the Highways Dept. the West Loughborough Study is so far advanced that it will still be implemented. There was a proposal to circulate everyone in the area with the changes that were made following a series of public meetings. But, that suggestion has now been dropped and residents are urged to keep watch for the 'Public Notice' that will appear soon in The Loughborough Echo where the scheme details will be displayed together with a deadline for final objections.

The more observant of you may have noticed that where double yellow lines are proposed then the limits have been paint marked on the pavements in our area by a small pale yellow splodge of paint.

We will post more news on this site as and when it becomes available.

Monday 24th May News Items

2010-05-24T12:19:00.004+01:00

When we set up the campaign group SwampedbyCars it was in response to a proposal, from the County Council's 'West Loughborough Parking Study' to turn our roads into car parks where residents, have to pay, and students park for free. At that time we circulated a note to residents explaining the proposed 'parking permit scheme' would cost £20; although we stated that the prices would increase. Today people living in Loughborough parking permit zones have been told that the cost of a parking permit will rise to £30 in June. Furthermore, the office at CBC will close and all permits will be issued from County Hall. Applications will have to be made by phone, using credit or debit cards. No personal visits will be allowed. A new scheme will be introduced for builders and traders. The books of visitor of tickets remain unchanged.

One of the problems that we raised with the Council was the University's change of library opening times to 24 hour access during exam periods - twice a year. A lot of students are parking at entrances during evenings and nightimes particularly at Coniston Crescent with disruption to local residents. The University was asked in the CBC panel report to investigate nightime noise in this area. In the meantime, we sent an e mail to the University asking that they open car parks, on temporary basis, for student library visitors. We heard last week that the University has implemented this suggestion and students can now get limited permits for nighttime access to the library at modest cost.

The CBC Panel Report on University Parking and Entrances asked that the implementation of their recommendations be overseen by the Campus Liaison Group. This is a body that was set up in 2000, following the public meetings, to consider the parking problems raised by the University South Side Residents' group. As explained earlier in this blog, SbC is the sucessor of the residents group which only campaigned on one issue; inconsiderate university parking on local roads. Naturally you would expect SwampedbyCars to play a full part in the University Campus Liaison Group? However, we are experiencing problems being admitted to this group, even though we were the reason for it being set up originally. The Liaison Group only meets on a three-monthly basis and the next meeting is this evening. We have a member of our team awaiting a last minute change of mind by the University to attend this evenings meeting. Both the West Loughborough Parking Study and the CBC Panel Report on Parking are on the agenda.
We will let you know if our representative is allowing to attend the meeting in a later post.

Announcements May 2010

2010-05-03T11:54:00.003+01:00

Implementation of improved controls on student parking and other 'green' transport initiatives on the campus are to be overseen by the Loughborough Campus and Community Liaison Group. This group is composed of representatives from the University, local resident groups, the Council, police and a landlords group; it meets quarterly and its next meeting is on Thursday 24th May. The SwampedbyCars team have asked to be represented by cooption of one of its members In this way we will be able to keep you informed of progress and developments.

Police Priority Setting. Our local police team wants your help in setting local priorities. The current policy priorities for this area are:
Tackle rowdy behaviour and drinking in the alcohol free zone, Ashby Road area, between 8pm and 4am. Tackle acts of criminal damage and rowdy behaviour, Kingfisher Way area, between 2pm and 8pm daily.

Our local bobby, David Green, covers a huge area from Nanpantan to the Derby Road. It includes all the roads between Ashby Road and Forest Road, the whole of the University and the Storer Road student housing area. To assist him we have two PCSO's Shaheen Abdullah and Clare Mant.
If you want to make suggestions for police priorities in this area you can fill in a form at www.leics.police.uk/loughborough and return it to Citizens' Focus Office, Police Station, Loughborough LE11 2XF. At the same web address you can also see local crime maps and check for information on monthly meetings with the public. You can also e mail your local police team from the same web-site.

Good news For Local Residents. April 2010

2010-05-03T11:24:00.005+01:00

By supporting the SbC team you have played an important part in keeping our roads free of student cars. The Cabinet of Charnwood Borough Council finally accepted the recommendations of the investigation panel on Thursday 18th April. The major gain for residents is that the University will register student cars and share this information with the Council. The University Security will then patrol our streets and stop students parking on the roads covered by our Traffic Exclusion Order. This order has been in place since 2002 and covers all the roads between Forest Road and the University campus from Epinal Way to Kirkstone Drive. It also covers Cotswold Close, Ashby Road and the New Ashby Road. The University has added this control into its internal regulatations and students who park in these areas, whilst accessing the University, will be subject to university discipline.
The University has announced that it will implement the registration and enforcement policy from academic year 2010/2011.
The Panel's Report also recommends that the bus service to the University be improved, that a shuttle bus operate within the campus together with a number of other 'green' transport initiatives. These improvements should help to reduce the car-culture amongst students on the campus.

Charnwood Highways Forum 31st March

2010-04-07T11:58:00.006+01:00

Our panel report continues to progress through the CBC committee structure and last week it was considered by the Highways Forum. Since our council handed over responsibility for roads, pavements and flower beds to the County Council, this is the forum where Borough Councillors and County Councillors meet with the leader of the Highways Team to review progress and set priorities for the whole of the Charnwood area.
There is a backlog of work within the Highways Department whilst new projects, such as the Loughborough Eastern Gateway have been added to their workload.
Generally the panel report was well received and below are some of the comments.
Many of the recommendations within the report rely on the University to implement, it was suggested that a list of university actions, with deadlines, be added to the report. The suggestion of better walking and cycling facilities, the increased bus service and addition of an internal shuttle bus for the University were welcomed. But there should also be a review of all the service bus routes, particularly the No 4 route, to ensure that stopping places and student access to the University coincide.
It was reported that the Forum had been asked to consider the 'Arnos Grove' scheme of parking restriction. This ensures that long term parking is stopped by there being a closed period each day for an hour. Councillor Lewis reported that this suggestion was not wanted by the SbC campaigners as it implied that parking for the other 23 hours was acceptable. He also reported that SbC had suggested, rather than close the Coniston entrance at 10.30pm, when the University Library is open 24 hours a day, that the Library be required to close at 9pm or 10pm, so that the nuisance experienced in Coniston Crescent is not displaced to the Spinney Hill Drive entrance. He agreed that there might be displacement of the nuisance but he didn't agree with our suggestion of shorter library hours, even though it is mostly the computer facilities that are in demand at nighttime.
Mike Sheldrake, the Highways Area Team Leader, responded to the delay issues. He also suggested that to avoid even more delay the final round of consultations for the West Loughborough Parking Study be scrapped and that the scheme now proceed to the legal and advertisement stage. Residents will still be able to voice their comments at this stage so removing the formal consultation stage should help speed up the process.
The SwampedbyCars team advise all local residents to check for the adverts appearing in the Loughborough Echo and make your views known to the Highways Team.

CBC Cabinet 18th Feb

2010-02-19T11:21:00.002Z

Last night members of the SwampedbyCars team attended the Council's Cabinet meeting to see how the Scrutiny Panel's report on our petition would be dealt with and progressed. No problem, the panel report was accepted.
The next steps are that the people and organisations that gave evidence to the panel are invited to make comments on the report. At the same time the report is formally passed to the Council's Chief Executive, who will consult with the lead Cabinet member on Planning, to look at the resource implications and the practicalities of implementation. A report will then go back to Cabinet in two months time. With such a wide ranging report the Council has to careful to ensure that that the policy, resource and legal implications are all thoroughly considered.
Naturally, we will also be invited to comment formally on the panel's report. We will be pressing for all the recommendations, that improve the quality of life for the communities around the University to be retained and possibly strengthened.

West Loughborough Parking Study - update

2010-02-19T11:03:00.003Z

Those of you following the Swampedby Cars campaign will remember that we started the campaign last February as we were alarmed at the proposals of the Leicestershire Highways Authority to put 800+ parking bays on the roads closest to the University. We thought that this action would attract even more student cars to the area so our parking problems would worsen. Over the past year there have been several meetings and public exhibitions and the proposals are now much reduced, in most roads, whilst providing stronger parking controls at the Kingfisher Way estate, some of the streets off Ashby Road and in the Ashleigh, Oaklands Outwoods Drive area.
The Highways Authority team leader was expecting to circulate the final proposals to residents first in January and more recently by the 19th February 2010. However, ten days ago we received a note from Mr Sheldrake outlining some of the problems his team are facing at the moment. He hasn't forgotten us and work is progressing. But the awful weather this winter and pressure to finish the proposals for the Eastern Gateway, the station area scheme and the town centre road changes have resulted in delays to the West Loughborough proposals.

We should hear more shortly.

Buttons, more buttons

2010-01-27T16:51:00.003Z

My daughter Sarah gave me a small sack of buttons at Chrismas, I thought you might like to see them. Of course if Loughborough University agree to implement the recommendations of the CBC panel on University Parking and Entrances I will have a few buttons going spare for your campaign.

Thanks for reading this blog.

CBC Panel Report on University Parking and Entrances 19th January 2010

2010-01-20T10:15:00.004Z

The SwampedbyCars team is celebrating following the publication of Charnwood Borough Council's Scrutiny Panel Report on University Parking and Entrances. You can read the full report on the CBC web-site under 'committee papers' or, use this link, http://tiny.cc/tV6Uw The Panel's recommendations are made under each of the twelve headings they investigated.

The panel recommends that the University register all student cars coming to Town. When this is added to the existing parking restrictions around the campus then students parking in the wrong place can be identified and dealt with by the University. This is what we campaigned for! Charnwood Borough Council backed our petition and ordered an investigation. We provided substantial examples of 'best practice' from other university towns and we worked closely with the Investigation Panel. It has done an excellent job of mapping a positive way forward for the Town and the University. The following is a summary of the main points in the report.

The University and College to urge campus users not to bring their cars to Loughborough, except those with exceptional need.
An outright ban on student cars was not supported.
The University to maintain a register of all staff and student cars and their own security services to police streets adjoining the campus. That registration details be shared with CBC to enforce S106 parking controls on accommodation.
Provide a new shuttle bus service for the interior of the campus.
New student accommodation both on and off campus to be subject to 'no car' agreements and for S106 contributions to facilitate public transport and cycling and walking schemes. Green Travel Plans to be strengthened.
The efforts of the University, S.U. and College, to encourage wider use of cycling, is recognised and attention is drawn to other successful schemes run by Nottingham, Leeds and Sustrans.
The Borough Council to use its position to improve bus provision, frequency and capacity, including more attractive price structures.
The new Local Travel Plan 3: to seek the enhancement of public transport, walking and cycling; this may necessitate the dualling of Epinal Way to create a bus lane. More effective use of Green Travel Plans, targets, monitoring and publication of performance.
University to extend the use of 'no car agreements' on its accommodation, both on and off campus following the example of William Morris Hall.
No action to close university entrances on Ashleigh Drive and Spinney Hill Drive.
University to close overnight access from Coniston Crescent (10.30pm to 6.00am) subject to qualification. University to investigate noise nuisance in this area.
University to provide more 'pay and display' parking for non permit holders for short-term and evening parking.
The Loughborough Campus Liaison Group invited to include a standing item on the monitoring of these recommendations (subject to endorsement by Cabinet).
Certain other recommendations to inform the County Council's West Loughborough parking study including:- should a parking preference scheme become necessary, to manage on-street parking, then the University and the College be invited to contribute towards the cost of schemes and enforcement, so as to reduce the cost to the public purse and residents.

SwampedbyCars is very pleased with these recommendations. We always recognised that getting a complete ban on student cars was too big a step to be successful on this occasion. Having participated in the process throughout, and despite our early reservations, we have been extremely impressed with Charnwood Borough Council and the hard work of its councillors, officers and leadership. We are very grateful to the panel members and particularly Jill Vincent, chair of the panel.

Readers should note that these recommendations still have to make progress through the Borough Council committee structure and Council Cabinet.
The SwampedbyCars Team: Ian Webb ian-webb@ntlworld.com, Anne Kingston anne.kingston@talktalk.net, Nicholas Ball nickball@ntlworld.com Geoff Modlen g.modlen@ntlworld.com, Pauline Barritt pauline.barritt@hotmail.co.uk

2009 Summary from SwampedbyCars

2010-01-07T11:10:00.002Z

SwampedbyCars was started in Feb. 2009 to protect the residential roads around Loughborough University from a Highways Dept. proposal for a 'preference parking zone'. Their scheme would create 800 parking bays for staff and students of the University to park for free whilst we residents would have to buy a permit!
We don't want to lose our Traffic Exclusion Order that prevents university parking on our roads. We don't want a new scheme that will attract more student cars; or parking bays, yellow lines, badly parked cars, pollution or 24 hour-a-day disruption.
We circulated information to all houses in the area and judging from your feedback the vast majority support our campaign. Then we contacted Charnwood Borough Council and presented our views as a petition. After some problems, which you can read about on this web-site, the Council agreed to investigate. They have collected information from us, six other residents' groups, the University, SU etc. The panel, chaired by Jill Vincent, is expected to report by the end of January 2010.

We have asked that students be banned from bringing cars to the town, apart from those with exceptional need. However, as this is a 'big ask' it may take some time to achieve. So in the meantime, we have asked that the University register all student cars that are brought to the town; that they are licenced to an address and only one or two cars are allowed at each house depending on space. We want to break the 'car culture' where six students bring six cars to an ordinary house where a normal family would only have one. If all student cars are registered then University patrols can identify those students breaking our Traffic Exclusion Order. We want the University to sort out this problem not the County Council Highways Dept.
We have collected evidence of good practice from elsewhere and have examined how other universities have dealt with this problem. Oxford and Cambridge ban student cars from their towns. Many other universities have policies that ban student cars from the campus and they have worked with their local council to put parking bans on local roads. The universities of Leeds (Trinity College), Bath and Bournemouth pay for the parking schemes next to their campuses; local residents do not pay. Durham registers and licences cars in a similar manner to our proposal. At Surrey University Guildford Council has made the University count all cars entering its campus. The University has a strict travel plan that allows it to expand without exceeding an agreed limit. We propose that Charnwood Council impose 'counting cars' for all travel plans now required. Counting cars is the first step in limiting cars.

During the year we have had a lot of advice and support from other residents' groups, from our councillor, Peter Lewis and other councillors particularly Max Hunt. We wish them all a Happy New Year.
Which leaves the County Council Highways Department and their proposal for a preference-parking scheme. Their work continues and you can expect their proposals in January. They are still suggesting a reduced 'preference-parking scheme' for Kingfisher Way area and for Ashleigh, Mountfields, and Oaklands. Other roads will get yellow lines at corners and junctions but not parking bays. We wish a Happy New Year to Mike Sheldrake and his team at Highways.
And a Happy New Year to our readers.

From the SwampedbyCars team

SbC meets Andy Reed - our MP

2009-11-16T09:57:00.002Z

SwampedbyCars meeting with Andy Reed went well, despite it being, Friday 13th November. We had previously had an exchange of letters so it was very nice to meet our MP in person. For those that haven't met him before he is young, energetic and he already has an excellent knowledge of how the excess of university cars is affecting Loughborough roads. He listened to us carefully and interjected thoughtful points and suggestions whilst being particularly fair to the University. We think our argument made an impression and our description of how the University had created some of these problems by thoughtless decision making in the past, appeared to strike home. Andy generally supported our position as it is very much in line with his own campaign for the University to reduce its carbon footprint. We pointed out that this must include the University cars outside the campus as well as actions on the campus. Andy took on board an action to contact the University to request them to play a positive role in reducing the volume of University cars coming to the town. Andy Reed will now be able to represent our views more accurately when meeting with the Borough Council and the University.
We would like to thank him, and Ian his assistant, for giving us 45 minutes of surgery time.

SbC meets Loughborough Students' Union President

2009-11-14T13:37:00.008Z

Our meeting with Rob Hulme lasted just over an hour and he listened politely to our long history of complaints and petitions about excessive student parking on the roads around the University, particularly near entrances. We also discussed the more recent problem of the many student cars kept at rented properties in the town; often more than the permitted two per house allowed by the preference parking schemes. This is important because, in order to dodge the wardens, these cars are moved to residential roads next to the campus each day as they are not allowed onto university property.
Rob was concerned about our campaign and our, easy to understand slogan of 'Ban student cars'. He was anxious for us to understand that many students do have a need for cars, such as those that are disabled, those with young families, or those students who have a regular need to travel, not least the many students training in sports, particularly the disabled sportsmen and sportswomen who travel to the University each day.
In some of our documents submitted to the council we have conceded these points with the proviso that cars be registered and licenced to a property where an agreed number of student cars should not be exceeded and that the University provide parking for them during the day. At least that way, the University gets the problem if too many permissions for cars are granted, not the local residents.
The CBC investigation panel will be calling Rob to give the student point of view on car parking. We wanted to make clear that SbC ia not anti-student, just convinced there is a better way of managing all the university cars that come to the town. SbC also asked that LSU's Environment and Ethics officer be asked for an opinion on the number of student cars. SbC offered help with providing Rob with information, and best practice elsewhere, that he could use in presenting to the panel.
We wish Rob all the best for next year when he finishes as President and starts a career.

Who you going to call?

2009-10-30T14:13:00.004Z

Alison Barlow is Loughborough University's Community Relations Officer and she has recently provided this information to Swamped by Cars.
If you live in the area between Forest Road and Ashby Road, from Epinal Way to Kirkstone Drive, and you are suffering from student/university parking then you can report it to our Community Support Officer, Clare Mant, by calling 0116 222222 and when prompted, key in her 'collar number' 6065. You can also e mail Clare on Clare.Mant@leicestershire.pnn.police.uk
Alison has provided our CSO with letters signed by the University's Chief Operating Officer, Will Spinks, and the letters warn parkers that they are parking in an area prohibited by regulations if they are attending or visiting the University.
Alison has also said that, if necessary, residents can also report the problem to her and she will pass on a message to Clare. Alison's number is 01509 228696 or e mail A.J.Barlow@lboro.ac.uk
If residents are suffering other kinds of nuisance, possibly out of normal working hours then the University's security office have a 24 hour contact number, 01509 222141.
Swamped by Cars has a similar warning letter that residents' can use. Contact one of the SbC organisers and they will send you a letter you can copy and use as necessary.

Our panel. Monday 12th October 2009

2009-10-16T20:03:00.005+01:00

Our CBC Investigation panel met for the first time on Monday 12th October. For the first half hour or so the panel members, six councillors and two officers met privately before we were asked to join them. By the time the courtesies were over we had about fifty minutes to make our case. This sounds like a lot of time but with interuptions for questions and steering from the chair, Jill Vincent, the time passed too quickly. Our problem is relatively easy to explain, but it is more serious in certain places and there are problems thoughout the town, so it does take time to get to the nitty gritty. We covered ordinary parking problems, how the Traffic Exclusion Order is working, displacement parking, either from preference parking areas, or because the University won't allow town-dwelling students to park at their campus. Also there are many student houses with six cars where this causes a serious nuisance to permanent residents.

Some of the councillors are from the town and two worked at the University, so it is easier for them to understand the problem. But I could see that those councillors from outside the town were having a lot of new information to absorb. Naturally this led to questions and we lost time answering them fully. Overall I think we were given a fair hearing but there is so much information to put across we hardly got started on best practice and examples from other universities and councils. Still, we have supplied a lot of written information and a display of photographs including a number from KARG, the Kingfisher Area Residents' Group.

The panel will now go on to speak to the other parties such as the University, Students' Union and a 'club' of landlords. At some time in the future we have been promised a return visit. We will keep you posted on this site.

Just some odds and ends. Tuesday 6th October

2009-10-06T14:39:00.004+01:00

Our review panel meets for the first time on Monday 12th October at 5pm. We have been asked to arrive at 5.30pm to go through the evidence of 'best practice' that we have collected from other universities and councils. We will keep you informed of what happens.

We reported on our objections to the University's planning application for a new Design Building that will be built on a large student car park. Nineteen other objections have been lodged with the Council, including one from Leicestershire County Council Highways Department. It raises nearly all the issues we local protesters raised and it has suggested some additional constraints on construction. We do not have a great deal of experience with the CBC Planning process, so we were a bit taken-a-back by the 21 page report presented by the Planning Officer Peter Blitz in support of the application. He introduces new material and assurances from the University, without any confirmatory paperwork from them and on which we will not have an opportunity to comment! You would think that if new material is to be introduced the decision should be to 'refer the application' so that there is chance for this new material to be scrutinised by the community. The planning meeting is on Thursday evening 8th October at 5pm in the Southfield committee rooms. This is open to the public and we will be there to see what happens and it will be reported on this site.

All students love to party; or so we are told. This evening's Leicester Mercury lets us know by exactly how much Loughborough students love to party more than most! A shocking statistic is revealed and the Mercury's is leading with this item in their editorial. Please go out and buy the Mercury, they have provided some good publicity for Swamped by Cars and I'm sure you will be interested in today's paper. See also P.18 where our friend Councillor Slater proposes a park and ride scheme for the town seeing as how Epinal Way is so blocked with slow moving traffic in term time! Well, we are trying very hard to do something about that, perhaps the park and ride won't be necessary if student cars are banned from the town.

We get a Council Investigation Panel

2009-09-28T18:45:00.003+01:00

At the CBC Investigation and Review Committee on the 23rd September Swamped by Cars was awarded an Investigation Panel to look into the issues raised in our petition. The panel will have powers that extend a little further than our petition. It has also been asked to investigate the University's policy of building on car parks to see if adequate provision has been made for car parks consumed by new buildings.
The panel members will be Jill Vincent (Lab) Chair, David Walker (Lib Dem), David Goss (Con) - David is an ex Loughborough Students' Union President, Jane Hunt (Con), Ken Pacey (Con) and Pauline Ranson (Con). The panel's policy advisor will be David Hankin, Director of Planning and admin support will be provided by Mike Hooper or Helen Tambini (to be confirmed.)
The Swamped by Cars team is busy preparing information to help the panel start its work.

View road maps of LCC proposals

2009-09-18T19:16:00.003+01:00

Thanks to one of our readers we now have a link direct to the County Council's Highways Department maps of our local area with all the proposals for change overlaid on the map.

This site has now been updated to include maps of the Ashby Road/Garendon Road area as well as all the roads on the south side of the University.

Don't forget to pass in your comments to the Highways Team, you have until 30th September to return their questionaire.

We have created a short link to put in your browser below.

http://tiny.cc/1vKeQ

County Council makes an exhibition of itself.

2009-09-15T14:19:00.007+01:00

On Friday morning at 9.00am I opened an e mail to say 'Swamped by Cars' could attend the County Council's Exhibition after all. This exhibition was just for residents and it covered all the roads south of the University and the Kingfisher estate.
We rushed around, prepared a poster, bought some T shirts, got them printed and arrived at the Edward Herbert Building for the 1.00pm start. As I entered the hall I heard the representative from the Council apologising to the eight or nine local residents, who had arrived on time, for the lack of an exhibition, it was in two cars that had just set off from Leicester.
So I approached the council official, introduced myself, in my 'Swamped by Cars' T shirt, and asked if he wanted me to take over? 'Oh, yes please', he answered. Then my colleague from Swamped by Cars arrived and between us we spoke to all the residents who were already there and all the newly arriving residents.
The exhibition finally got started properly just before 2.00pm. There was a steady stream of residents for the rest of the afternoon and when the exhibition reopened in the evening the visitor numbers continued at about the same pace until it closed at 8.oopm.
The plans are more modest in their scope than we had first read about in February when we decided to set up Swamped by Cars. In fact most of the roads will only have yellow lines at the corners. Ashleigh, Mountfields, Oaklands and Outwoods Drive will get parking bays and these will be set in a hop scotch pattern, on alternating sides of the roads, causing multiple chicanes. I'm sorry but I was too busy talking to residents to notice the proposals for Kingfisher, perhaps someone from there will e mail in the particulars and I will amend this post.

The overall conclusions from the Swamped by Cars team was that most residents understand the cause of the parking problems. The problems come from students at the University and it is the University that should sort this not, not the County Council.

The University's new Design Building

2009-09-08T14:29:00.004+01:00

The University has applied for planning permission to build a new Design Building. I have seen the plans and it will be a very large building. (Search for p/09/1445/2 on the planning portal at the CBC web site.) It will stretch from behind the Badminton and Netball Shed on Epinal Way all the way to the back gardens of the houses on Mountfields Avenue.
However, surprise surprise, it is to be built on a student car park and over 200 parking places will be lost. During the construction phase, which will almost certainly be over two academic years, even more student parking places will be lost as the builders and contractors will need parking space for their cars and vans. There will also need to be site-offices, material storage and off-loading facilities. So expect many more than 200 car park spaces to be lost. A new car park is to be built to hold 170 cars but these will have to be for staff at least during the working day. How the construction phase car parking will be managed is not part of the planning application so we have drawn this to the attention of the Planning Committee in our letter of objection.
Naturally the 'Swamped by Cars' team has objected to the plans solely on the loss of student car parking spaces. We know of other residents who are also objecting.
You have to read the University's Green Travel Plan which was submitted with the plans. (It is a requirement under national PPG13 Planning Guidance rules.). If you wonder why Swamped by Cars was set up all will be revealed once you realise how poor the University's Green Travel Plans are. I am happy to call them a disgrace for what is, in other aspects, a highly successful and respected university. We need to get the Council to put pressure on the University to get a proper green travel plan in place and acted upon. We may be able to do this through the Section 106 procedure of the Town and Country Planning Act. Other Universities have had stringent 106's placed on them by their local councils, for example Surrey University. At Surrey, Guildford Council has required the University to install traffic measurement sensors at its entrances so the Council knows exactly what traffic is being generated by their university. They then required the University to achieve a percentage reduction in traffic and stick to the lower figure each year. Charnwood Borough Council has a lot to learn about these controls. We will do our best to educate them.

Dirty work at the crossroads

2009-09-08T13:45:00.002+01:00

Having got Cabinet's agreement to set up an investigatory panel you would think the next stage was fairly strightforward. You would be wrong.

We expected the next stage would be consideration at Scrutiny Commission. This body is made up of councillors who are not on Cabinet but who are either chair or vice-chair of committees. The Chair of Scrutiny is Max Hunt (Lab) and the Vice Chair is Steve Hampson (Con). As it happens the meeting of the 27th August would be chaired by Councillor Hampson as Max Hunt was away on holiday.

A week before the meeting we were told the agenda had been printed and there was something there that we might like to look at and consider. It was an agenda paper from an officer saying, notwithstanding the recommendation of Cabinet, the Commission need not follow the recommendation to set up a panel but, if it did, then officers would not provide administrative support or minute-taking facilities. I have to say this threw us somewhat. Are Cabinet decisions always ignored by officers, sometimes ignored by officers or, just on this occassion? We sent an e mail off to a senior member of cabinet for clarification. I don't know what happened behind the scenes but within two hours we had an e mail back saying, we would get a panel and it will be serviced by officers.

Spurred on by this behaviour we decided to attend Scrutiny Commission with some supporters so we could see the outcome of this manoevering. There were a number of councillors who spoke and wanted clarification on the point we had raised and the tone of the meeting was, ..'we should have a panel and officers should support it in the normal way'.

So our panel is now passed to a further committee for implementation.

The Cabinet Meeting 6th August 2009

2009-08-12T16:03:00.006+01:00

About an hour before the meeting we had a torrential downpour and I would not have been surprised if the SwampedbyCars team had arrived on their own. But showing great dedication 21 people turned up fifteen minutes early(!) for a photograph of supporters grouped behind our campaign banner, 'SwampedbyCars'. And by the time the meeting started we had nearly 40 supporters in the Council Chamber annex to hear the cabinet discuss our petition.

Fortunately we had asked that our item came early in the agenda so we didn't have long to wait. The main speakers were Mr D Hankin, who summarised his report (mentioned in an earlier blog entry) and Peter Lewis our councillor who read out a short statement prepared by ourselves. When the item was opened for general discussion there was a very sensible contribution from Councillor David Slater whom we had met as a group in the previous week. In short, he proposed that the Investigation and Scrutiny Committee set up a panel to consider and make recommendations on the way forward in respect of the issues raised in the petition, namely the University entrances and parking policies. Such a panel would receive evidence from residents, the University and the students Union as well collect information from other universities where it is known that there are controls limiting student cars being brought to the town. This proposal met with agreement and it was added to the recommendations contained in the Hankin report.

As mentioned previously, we could only observe and not take part but thanks to Councillor Peter Lewis's professional presentation of our statement and Councillor Slater's sensible contribution we felt that we had been given fair consideration by the cabinet.

We shall be pressing for an early meeting of the review panel and we will report developments as soon as possible on this site.

What Happened before the Meeting?

2009-08-11T11:17:00.005+01:00

A few days before the meeting D Hankin, Director of Development at CBC, circulated a 6 page response to our document to the Cabinet and ourselves. The recommendations, slightly reduced, are below:
1. The frustrations and concerns underpinning the petitioners' call for an urgent review of university parking and entrance policies are noted.
2. That the range of responses by the Borough Council, the University and the highways authority are also noted.
3. That the highways authority's commitment to the West Loughborough Parking Study is supported in principle.
4. That enquiries are made of University towns where parking controls have been imposed restricting students bringing cars to the town.
5. That dialogue with the University is maintained through existing channels.
The report went on to summarise our potential solutions and some of the actions taken already by the University.
If you would like to read the report we have reduced the CBC link to the following:
http://tiny.cc/4vf7E
Ian Webb, leader of 'Swamped by Cars' then tried to find minutes of the meetings between the Council and the University as mentioned in recommendation No. 5 of the report. These meetings have been happening for many years but are not minuted. As this is the preferred channel of communication between the Council and the University in Mr Hankin's report you might imagine we had some reservations. Democratic governance, openness and how do we show that agreements have been acted upon if we can't see the minutes?
There was a flurry of exchanges with officers, councillors and our members, then, just before the meeting it was suggested that a further recommendation be considered. To find out what this is, you will need to read the next installment on this blog!

At Council Cabinet Meeting 6th August 2009

2009-08-11T10:32:00.002+01:00

We are extremely grateful to all the local residents who turned out (during a torrential downpour) to support us at the Council Cabinet meeting on Thursday evening. Twentyone people made it in time for the photo above and by the time the meeting started we had nearly forty supporters present. An excellent show of support. Thank you all, especially Anne for the banner!

Our chance to influence Charnwood Borough Council Cabinet

2009-07-30T09:12:00.001+01:00

Read our petition at:

http://tiny.cc/bxbEB

Apologies from Editor. This post was lost during an editing procedure on 25th September 2009

Swampedbycars leader lobbys Tory Shadow Transport Minister

2009-07-27T10:34:00.001+01:00

Friday 24th July 2009-07-27

At the invitation of the Loughborough and District Cyclists Union, Swamped by cars leader Ian Webb met Nicky Morgan, prospective Conservative candidate for Loughborough and the Tory Shadow Transport Minister Stephen Hammond in Leicester today.

Student Car Exclusion Zone Should be Three Miles

2009-07-27T10:27:00.002+01:00

Letters to the Loughborough Echo 10th July 2009

John Catt, representing the Loughborough and District Cyclists Users' Campaign, wrote a challenging letter to the Echo this week. He called for a three-mile exclusion zone for student cars similar to the Cambridge University ban that covers an even bigger area.

'Such a policy would have the advantage of greatly increasing the number of pedestrians and cyclists in Loughborough making it safer for both and encouraging the local authority to invest more in facilities for walking, cycling and the local bus service.'

Below is a link to the Loughborough and District Cyclists Users' Campaign web-site.

www.lduc.org.uk

Nearly All Top 40 Universities Have Parking Bans

2009-07-26T09:10:00.000+01:00

Letters to the Loughborough Echo 3rd July 2009

Our campaign group had a lengthy letter published drawing attention to how nearly all the top UK universities now ban student cars from their campuses and many also ban student cars from their towns and cities. Our letter drew attention to how Durham University has banned student cars from the City of Durham -see our post for the 28th June 2009.

Many of the top universities banned student cars following a review of traffic congestion after the last Conservative Government passed the Traffic Reduction Act in April 1997.

Our letter then described how a similar review took place in Charnwood by Leicestershire County Council and how they too engaged Loughborough University as a reviewer.

The report showed that traffic congestion was identified on Ashby Road and Epinal Way and that there is an excess of parking on the town streets but no active policies were proposed to deal with either the congestion or the excess parking.

Reviews of parking were taken across the whole country and students are no longer allowed to park at the following top universities: Aberdeen, Aston, Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff Dundee, Durham, Edinburgh, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Belfast, Reading, Strathclyde, Warwick, York and almost all the London Universities.

Because of its size relative to the town, Loughborough should have been the first university to ban student cars not the last.

We call on the Borough Council and if necessary the County Council to put in place measures that restrict students bringing cars to the town, stop them parking on roads around the university and promote green travel solutions for both students and staff.

University Library open 24 hours doesn't help the car situation.

2009-07-26T08:42:00.001+01:00

Letters to the Loughborough Echo 3rd July 2009

Elizabeth and Tim Illson have an excellent letter published drawing attention to an increase of inconsiderate parking by university students now that the exam season is upon us again. This is made much worse by the university library opening 24 hours a day as it attracts students to park near entrances during the day and during the night as well.

'This causes severe stress to the local residents as we have to endure streams of student cars circulating in our streets looking for a parking place. On bad days it is like living in a shopping centre car park at Christmas!'

There follows several paragraphs describing how even though students are breaking parking regulations the authorities are reluctant to enforce the controls. Drawing on comments made in an earlier letter on student noise, the conclusion is drawn that this is a constant theme with university issues, the authorities first deny there is a problem and later, they may admit there is an issue but say Loughborough has to put up with it because the university is the 'towns largest employer'.

There follows a stark warning to both the town and the university that as student misbehaviour reduces the quality of life of Loughborough residents then the resulting atmosphere of town-gown hostility will discourage students from coming here.

With apologies to the authors for this contraction of their excellent and carefully written letter.

Residents call for action over student parking.

2009-07-26T08:14:00.001+01:00

26th June 2009. The Loughborough Echo reports;

Angry Loughborough residents are calling for Charnwood Borough Council to enforce tighter measures to prevent the town's university from "encouraging" its students to park in private streets.

Ian Webb told the Echo, 'We are asking the Council to act now. We want them to use legislation to put some control over the way the university is managing its students. The university is a successful one, growing at an accelerating rate. But we are concerned that the University is not accommodating the cars that the students are bringing to the town'.

'They are quite happy to dump these student cars on our streets. We live very close to the university and it is simply unfair to have to put up with this'. Mr Webb added that the residents are going to the Council, as they believe that the University will not take any action on this, as history has shown this has been a problem for the past fifty years.

Sunday 28th June. Read our document!

2009-06-28T14:36:00.004+01:00

The document prepared by the campaign group, 'Swampedbycars' is now available for you to read on a public access web site. There is no need to register to use this site just enter the address into your search bar and it will take you straight to the document. Or, click here to read
http://tiny.cc/bxgEB

Sunday 28th June Information from Durham University

2009-06-28T14:04:00.004+01:00

We have known for a long time that Oxford and Cambridge Universities ban students from having cars in their city. About ten years ago Durham University joined this elite group of universities and imposed a 'zero car policy on students'. How did they do that?

In April 1997 the last Conservative Government passed the Road Traffic Reduction Act. This Act placed a duty on County Councils to limit traffic congestion by targeting particular classes of driver. Durham County Council called in an external reviewer and they looked at their largest employers. Durham University being the biggest. The external reviewer proposed a zero car policy for students. This ban on students having cars has now been in place for some time. Students cannot take a car to Durham on pain of an academic fine. The external reviewer was Loughborough University!

After the review in November 1997 Durham County Council's Head of Highways Management Services wrote to Durham University requesting them to enforce a general rule, not allowing undergraduates to keep or use a motor vehicle, similar to the rule in force at Cambridge University. Durham University agreed and put in place a ban on student cars, apart for a small number with special needs. To enforce this rule every student car taken to Durham has to be licenced by the University. No more than two licences are issued to any one residential address.

The reasons Durham gives for having these rules are; These regulations have proved very helpful in promoting good relations between students and their neighbours. Prior to their introduction there were many complaints about student parking. It goes on; Many other universities have similar regulations, for the same reason as Durham, so this is not an issue specific to the City of Durham.

We, the neighbours of Loughborough University, call on Charnwood Borough Council to ensure that the University is required to ban student cars and that those few cars required by those with special needs be registered,(With access to both the University and Borough Council.) so that appropriate disciplinary measures can be applied to students breaking car ownership and parking rules.

This is a model we would encourage Loughborough University to adopt through the auspices of Charnwood Borough Council.

Thursday 25th June Residents call for action....

2009-06-28T14:00:00.002+01:00

Today, the Loughborough Echo printed an article on page 8 informing Loughborough residents of our document that asks Charnwood Borough Council to take action with the University to place limits on student cars and parking. The article contains a quote from Peter Lewis, 'I am in no way endorsing this document...' Please note: Councillors are not allowed to endorse one particular side of a debate otherwise they would be in breach of council rules. Peter is taking every care to be fair to both sides.

22nd June Borough Council Meeting

2009-06-28T13:57:00.003+01:00

This evening Peter Lewis, local councillor, presented our 14 page document, as a petition, to the Borough Council. There will be an opportunity for representatives from our group to address the Council at its meeting in early August.

Update. Sunday June 7th 2009

2009-06-07T11:54:00.002+01:00

Recently, very little has been happening about the Highways Department review of our roads. However, that is about to change as the next round of meetings with resident representatives has been announced. Meetings covering the Holywell, Spinney Hill and Coniston Crescent area will be held on the 15th June. Please make sure you have spoken to your local representative so that your views can be carried forward to the meetings.

Meanwhile the the campaign group has been talking to residents from the wider area and also to other residents' groups in the town. We have prepared a 14 page document that we are in the process of presenting to the Borough Council. So far copies have gone to the Acting CEO, Mike Preston - council leader, and our local councillors, Jane Hunt and Peter Lewis. We have asked them how we can get our document onto the Council's agenda for action.

Once we have heard back from the Borough Council we will be makeing the full document available for you and the town on a public access web site. [One that you don't have to register on before you can see the document.] We will be announcing the web address on this site and also in the Echo, one way or another. We would like the whole town to be able to read what we are asking for and why it is time for the Council to take action. The document has the support of the Storer Road/Ashby Road Residents' Group, the Brookfield Avenue Residents Association, two of the main campaigners from Garendon Road and the Nanpantan Residents Network.

We will also be contacting the 120 people who have supported our campaign, with e mails and letters, once the document is made fully public. With thanks to all those who have contributed from across the area.

Nicholas Ball, Ian Webb, Anne and Rob Kingston, Pauline Barritt and Geoff Modlen.

Highways Department Meetings

2009-04-17T08:04:00.001+01:00

The areas now being reviewed by the County Council are Asleigh, Mountfields, Oaklands and Holywell, Spinney Hill, Coniston-Upper Derwent. Separate meetings are being held for Ashby Road, Garendon and Kingfisher areas.

We have reports from two of the smaller Highways Department meetings. Participants have been told that whatever the community wants to improve parking will be considered. We can ask for any mix of yellow lines, parking restrictions, our existing Parking Control Order or preference parking. And a new suggestion, Residents’ Only parking (!) has been added to the list of options.

We know there are places within the Parking Control Area where the ban on university parking is not working well and there are difficulties with enforcement. As such it is only fair to those suffering most have their situation improved first. The Council’s proposal is to yellow-line at least one side of the road in these areas. Representatives will be discussing with neighbours how best to achieve this. Where the problem compromises safety such as at road junctions then double yellow lines are likely to extend around the corners to block-off casual parking.

If we assume that we suffer the same, or increased, level of illegal parking then parkers displaced by yellow lining are likely to park in other areas. It is this ‘displacement parking’ that needs careful thought.

This campaign group is firmly agreed that we do not want any change that allows university parking on our roads such as preference parking that would allow casual parking for one hour with no control after 6pm or on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

So, the options are to continue with our parking control order and seek additional support from the University to enforce it or consider ‘residents-only’ parking. As we understand it, residents-only could be for up to 24 hours a day and would be free-of-charge for those who park exclusively on their driveways. However, residents’ permits would be needed for those that park on the road and residents would need to register to buy books of tickets for on-road visitor parking.
We strongly advise that you make your views clear to your area representative or the Highways Department. We hope to publish a list of area reps once they have given their agreement.

The Meeting with Mr. Sheldrake 19th March

2009-03-22T11:15:00.001Z

Draft Report

About thirty representatives from the wider area attended the meeting with the County Councils Highways team on Thursday evening. The response from residents in our area, Forest Road to the campus, was overwhelmingly in support of the ‘Parking Control Order’ whilst residents from Outwoods and Ashby Road supported a preference-parking scheme. A number of people spoke, with a balanced view put forward by Max Hunt local Councillor for the Garendon Area. He is also a member of the County Council’s Highways Committee.

From our area representatives pressed Mr. Sheldrake to confirm that ‘If it works in this area we won’t change it’ and this was accepted by him. This is a considerable success for our campaign, at one time only a one size fits all solutuion was being considered.

The meeting didn’t get to the end of the agenda in the allotted time but it was decided that the next meeting(s) would be split into separate areas and a smaller number of people would be asked to represent each area.

2009-03-17T11:28:00.000Z

Message to street representatives

2009-03-17T09:42:00.002Z

Meeting for street representatives on Thursday evening at the Anne Packer Building in the University.

Message for representatives.

There is no intrinsic problem with parking in this area. We are not close to a town centre with the wide range of attractions that bring casual parking. We are a very quiet neighbourhood. We just happen to be next door to a rapidly expanding university.

Since our control order started the University has expanded from around 10,000 students to over 15000. The University has built on car parks. In order to manage its parking stock it had banned students who live within a mile of the University from driving onto campus. Two years ago this exclusion order was extended to a two-mile radius, almost no student living in town is allowed to drive or park on campus.

No wonder we have a surge in parking problems.

The University is causing our problem and it should sort it out. It has the power to control student and staff parking, even if that means students are banned from bringing cars to Loughborough. This is the case at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Bristol universities. Loughborough is much smaller town than any of those cities.

Yes, the University has put some measures in place to reduce student parking but they must take more actions to stop parking in neighbouring roads, or displacement parking elsewhere in the town.

Message delivered

2009-03-17T09:07:00.001Z

Having received over a hundred messages of support for our campaign I delivered copies of the messages and a list of the telephone supporters to Mr. Sheldrake’s office together with a letter asking that, ‘your individual concerns deserve to be recognised’.

Wednesday 11th March 2009

2009-03-17T08:45:00.000Z

We received a lengthy e mail from Mr. Sheldrake. He considers that we are misrepresenting his proposal. He now says:

There is no current proposal to remove the existing order.
There is no current proposal to introduce a preference-parking scheme.

And he goes on to describe a possible strengthening of our exiting order by the introduction of yellow lining in an area with the greatest problem.

Collectively we are somewhat relieved to see that alternative proposals are now being considered and there is at least the suggestion of our order being retained.

[The information we circulated was gathered from official County Council web-sites, where there is discussion about the future proposals for controlling parking in this area, including preference parking schemes but there is no mention of our Traffic Regulation Order, or Prohibition of Motoring Order (or parking control order as we choose to call it). Other information was gathered from Councillors, the Local Council and the University.]

He declined our offer to meet.

Campaign Meeting Fri 6th March 2009

2009-03-17T08:01:00.001Z

We met on Friday 6th March to review all the messages of support we have received from around the area. Thank you.
With the strength of backing we have received so far it was decided we should be speaking direct with Mr Sheldrake, (LCC Highways Dept), the local councillors and the Mr Spinks the Chief Operating Officer for the University.

Sign our e petition

2009-03-02T20:12:00.003Z

We hope that you will sign our e petition to save our Parking Control Order. The petition states that we want to keep the Order and we do not want a Parking Preference Scheme.

Anyone over 18 who lives in the area covered by the Forest Road to the University Campus Parking Control Order can sign our petition, but you must give your address, post code and e mail. The email address is only available to our account administrator and it is counted so that multiple entries cannot be entered.

Copy and paste this address into your web site locator and follow the simple instructions.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/swampedbycars

Thank you very much!

Council contact list

2009-03-02T19:40:00.000Z

Thank you for contacting our campaign to keep the Parking Control Order on the roads between Forest Road and the University Campus.

It would help the campaign if, as many people as possible contacted our councillors and Mr Sheldrake directly. It might be better if you restrict yourselves to e-mail or letters as I think Peter Lewis has already received quite a lot of ‘phone calls on this issue. Here are their contact details:

Nanpantan Ward Councillors

Peter Lewis
133 Valley Road
Loughborough
Leics. LE11 3PY
Tel. 01509 551637
cllr.peter.lewis@charnwood.gov.uk

Jane Hunt
10 Sanders Road
Quorn
Loughborough
Leics. LE12 8JN
Tel. 01509 620464
cllr.jane.hunt@charnwood.gov.uk

Leicestershire County Council Highways Department

Mr M Sheldrake
Leicestershire Highways Northern Area Office
Granite Way
Mountsorrel
Loughborough
Leics. LE12 7TZ
Tel 0116 3050001
msheldrake@leics.gov.uk

Thanks again for your help.

What the residents are doing. 24th Feb 2009

2009-02-24T11:30:00.003Z

So far 9 people from Ashleigh, Mountfields, Holywell and Spinney Hill have shown their willingness to stand up against the County Council Highways Department’s proposal to replace our Parking Control Order. Five of us met on Monday to plan our campaign. First, there will be a letter sent out to all houses in the area giving our views and it will include photographs of parking problems from the past, before we got the control order. It will invite you all to get involved to protect your environment and keep the Control Order. We are also working on a petition and a campaign of letter writing.

Should you contact the campaign members we may use your e mail messages and telephone calls to add weight to our campaign. They will not be used for any other purpose.

Sending out letters to each house costs about a £100. So if anyone out there likes what we are doing, a modest contribution sent to one of the main organisers, would be much appreciated.

Please contact one of the following to show your support.
Nicholas Ball 9 Spinney Hill Drive, Tel 560641. nickball@ntlworld.com
Bob Kingston 33 Spinney Hill Drive, Tel 231432. annekingston@btinternet.com
Geoff Modlen 30 Mountfields Drive, Tel 261724 g.modlen@ntlworld.com
Pauline Barritt 37 Mountfields Drive, Tel 560273 pauline.barritt@hotmail.co.uk

Highways Forum for Charnwood

2009-02-12T10:53:00.000Z

If you want to check the proposal by the County Council visit their site:

Highways Forum for Charnwood at http://politics.leics.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=699

Warning. More cars coming to a street near you!

2009-02-12T09:12:00.002Z

This site is to alert you to changes in parking proposed for Loughborough.

The County Council wants to replace our Parking Control Order with a Preference Parking Scheme. Over 800 general parking places will be created on the roads around the University. They will be able to park outside your house all day and all night. There may be restrictions during the day but at night and weekends they will be able to park all the time. Studnts who live in a two mile radius of the University cannot bring their cars on campus. But this new scheme will allow them to park in our roads and pop in and out at any time of the day and night!

Leicestershire County Council has reviewed all areas in Loughborough close to the University and proposes many new parking bays.

New Ashby 122

Garendon 108

Kingfisher 69

Blackbrook 67

Hermitage 55

Sharpley 49

Herrick 48

Mountfields 49

Spinney Hill 46

Gracedieu 42

Outwoods 41

Coniston 28

Ashleigh 24

etc.

The Parking Control Area currently enjoyed by the south-side of the University (Holywell Drive area) and New Ashby Road area may disappear unless you fight for it to be retained. Leics County Council proposes that our scheme is replaced by another scheme that allows staff and students to park. This scheme is called 'Resident preference parking'.

Residents preference is NOT a residents only scheme.

Residents preference means We Pay and university staff and students park for free!

Their parking will be controlled, possibly by as little as half-an-hour each workday. That means they can park outside your house for 23 and a half hours a day but they have to move away for 30 minutes, otherwise they may get a fine. Other schemes are possible.

Whatever is chosen, I think our roads will be swamped by university cars.