Mark Simpson
Principal Engineer – Traffic and Road Safety / Cynorthwyydd Peirianneg/Uwch Gynorthwyydd Peirianneg
Visible Services / Gwasanaethau Gweledig
Vale of Glamorgan Council / Cyngor Bro Morgannwg
25 August, 2021
Dear Mr Simpson,
RE: The Vale of Glamorgan Council (Prohibition and Restriction of Waiting and Loading and Parking Places) (Civil Enforcement) (Amendment) (No8) Order 2021.
We have consulted with a number of residents who will be affected by this proposal, and whilst opinions may be divided, those marginally in favour (their words) express concerns about visitor parking but with reservations about the loss of rural character. Those against, where opinions were more strongly held, were concerned about loss of parking and road safety, in particular the inability of police detector vans to park on double yellow lines to combat the inevitable increase in speeding your proposal will facilitate. What traffic calming measures might be introduced was a question raised by one.
The only recent incidence of such parking on any scale was last year when Cosmeston car park was closed. There doesn’t seem to be an issue currently, and the phrase “sledgehammer to crack a nut” came up more than once, as did the risk of parking on the cycle path. Nor is there much evidence of overspill parking on Cosmeston estate.
It might be early days but it seems the whole parking overspill issue has been overstated by the Vale Council. As one Cosmeston resident put it:
“Have they done their stats to work out how many people park on Cosmeston estate as an overflow? Or on Lavernock Road? I have hardly noticed this unless there has been a really big event over at the park and they have run out of overspill parking.”
In consequence we see little reason for the double yellow lines as proposed as early evidence suggests overspill parking from Cosmeston is not currently an issue for residents. There is a case for them at the junction of Lavernock Road and Cosmeston Drive and other such junctions but this should have been addressed long since.
A further consideration is the law of unintended consequences. A couple of residents, one on Cosmeston Drive and one on Lavernock Road, open their homes once a year for charity fund-raisers. The recently introduced measures on Cosmeston Drive and your current proposal appear to render these impossible.
If the Vale Council pursue this policy it is likely to be interpreted as no more than a means of shepherding more vehicles on to the chargeable parking at Cosmeston Park, however it is dressed up.
Yours sincerely
Lino Scaglioni
Chair