Parking restrictions: A councillor's frustration
Following on from an article where a resident said " councillors were doing nothing", Cllr James Sapwell responded to explain exactly what steps had been taken:
"I just wanted to quickly respond to Mr Davis' comments that 'the Councillors are doing nothing' about this issue. In Brentwood North, the three of us (Ross Carter, Philip Mynott and I) share the workload as a team, and this is an issue I am dealing with. I first met with Mr Davis in May last year, and I agreed with him that this is an issue. As such I submitted a question to Essex County Council and last July ECC's Highways liasion officer offered a solution to the problem.
"Mr Davis disagreed with this proposal and suggested the parking bay removed entirely, but after discussions with other local residents I was told that this was not what they wanted to see so I asked Mr Davis whether he wanted to suggest any other proposals for ECC to investigate, but I was told this was the one he wanted to be implemented. As a result of further conversations with local residents concerned about the lack of parking already in the area, and discussions with colleagues, I approached SEPP (South Essex Parking Partnership) the organisation set up when the Brentwood Tories decided Brentwood didn't need it's own parking services any more, to ask that ECC's suggested solution, reccomended by the Highways Officer, be implemented. I chased SEPP for their response and was finally told in late May 2013 that a meeting had been scheduled to discuss this application amongst others and that I would be advised once a decision was made. I was only advised of this decision last week, which was that the cost would be "£1500 - £2000" and that these restrictions have been in place since 1999 and there is no evidence to suggest the current parking arrangements have created any safety issues. As a result, they will not be funding any changes. It is worth noting, that since SEPP was introduced, zero schemes in Brentwood have been implemented.
"So there you are, its taken 15 months to get nowhere. This is why being a councillor can be so frustrating. Unfortunately, there are long delays in receiving responses to the most simple of enquiries at both Brentwood Borough and Essex County Councils. This is unacceptable and it does reflect badly on us as Councillors as it is taking months for us to be able to do anything for the residents who elected us. Is it very frustrating and a great annoyance of mine. I should point out that this is not the fault of the staff at either Authority, but that of the Conservative adminsitrations that run them. They are asking far too much of our staff, and as a result the service is suffering.
Cllr James Sapwell
Brentwood North"