TELL THE WORLD WHAT WENT WRONG AND HOPEFULLY THE WORLD WILL GET BETTER
Always Happy to Help
Directorate of the Urban Enviroment
3 St James’s Road
Dudley
West Midlands
DY1 1HZ
Peter Vangeersdaele
Parkway Road -
One Way Street System
Several weeks ago driving back home I found my way blocked by a new sign telling me that I no longer could turn left from Grange Road and that I had to continue up to the grid locked roundabout at Eve Hill before I could join the Himley Road where I live. At first I thought that there must have been an accident as the queue of traffic stretched right down to Russells Hall Road and was hardly moving and it was not until I actually got there that I realised that they had closed Parkway Road to the traffic.
It did not make any sense to me. Why would anyone intentionally and purposely close a road and force the traffic into an overloaded gridlocked roundabout? Surely this could not be possible, but sadly it was.
Dudley’s Directorate of the Environment, headed by Peter Vangeersdaele had closed the road and, in doing so, had caused mayhem and misery for all the motorists heading home after work and for all the residents living along and around Grange Park Road.
I was furious and I was curious as to why they should have decided to do so and consequently I wrote a letter to the Council and asked for an explanantion.
Q: Who approached Dudley Council and requested this change
A: A petition was received from residents of Parkway Road on the 7th November 2007
Q: How many residents of Parkway Road have supported this change
A: 27 residents signed the petition
Q: Why have the residents of Himley Road who are directly affected by this scheme never been consulted or notified
A: Legal Public notices were displayed on the street on the 8th July 2009 for 21 days and appeared in the public notices section of the Express & Star
Q: How much has Dudley MBC spent to-
A: The costs were as follows: £291.55 for the legal advertisement and £ 3712.12 for the physical costs
Q: Has Dudley MBC verified that the signatures of the petition are genuine and that all individuals who signed the petition are residents of Parkway Road
A: Dudley Council Officers have not verified that the signatures are genuine. It is not normal practice for traffic engineers to check whether the signatories of a petition live at the address that they have indicated.
Q: Has Dudley MBC actually carried out an independent survey to confirm that the reason given on the petition were factual and accurate
A: Site observations by Council Officers at peak traffic time indicated that long traffic queues formed in Parkway Road at the beginning and end of the working day and Officers on site observed Parkway Road motorist’ poor view of traffic proceeding along Himley Road from Dudley Town Centre. This affected drivers’ ability to turn Parkway Road into Himley Road.
Following my further request for a copy of the petition they have sent me this copy but blacked out the name of the applicant.
The petition submitted to Dudley MBC is as follows:
We, the undersigned, being residents of PARKWAY ROAD in St. James Ward, Dudley present this petition to demonstrate our great concern with the danger presented by the large and increasing volume of wheeled traffic in our road.
PARKWAY ROAD is increasingly being used as a short cut between Grange Road and Himley Road especially in late afternoon, to such an extent that the traffic is often nose to tail from one end of the road to the other.
This growing problem is exacerbated by vehicles parked on both sides of the road by patrons of the recently opened Hair Salon and the Doctors’ practice – the entrance to both being in Grange Road. This is despite the fact that both have their own parking for their clients.
In addition Parkway Road is frequently used as a race track by cars accelerating to dangerous speeds.
Whilst we appreciate that road traffic is increasing everywhere as more and more people drive cars, we feel strongly that it is both possible and highly desirable that measures been taken to mitigate as far as possible the deleterious effects of this increase to enhance the safety of this road.
1) ROAD HUMPS NEED TO BE CONSTRUCTED AT BOTH ENDS OF THE ROAD AND ALSO AT LEAST TWO AT APPROPRIATE DISTANCES IN BETWEEN
2) A SPEED LIMIT OF 20 MPH SHOULD BE ENFORCED
3) THERE SHOULD BE NO RIGHT TURN AT THE DANGEROUS JUNCTION WITH HIMLEY ROAD, AS ONE VEHICLE WAITING TO TURN RIGHT INTO HIMLEY ROAD FREQUENTLY BLOCKS THE PATH OF ALL THE OTHER VEHICLES BEHIND
4) THE DOUBLE YELLOW LINES AT EACH JUNCTION SHOULD BE EXTENDED TO CONTROL CONGESTION
So here it goes:
27 people signed a petition which did not request a ONE WAY road scheme – this was invented by Dudley Council.
Council Traffic Officers observed long traffic queues at peak times and decided to push that traffic into the grid locked Eve Hill roundabout causing misery for the motorists and residents. They either did that deliberately to please the handful of people who live in Parkway Road or they are totally incompetent and not fit for their jobs.
It is a fact that vehicles who tried to turn right into Himley Road caused traffic delays. A simple NO RIGHT TURN sign would have stopped this.
One of the residents claim was the parking of visitors to the Doctors’ surgery was clogging the road, yet the surgery moved 12 month ago and the building is now occupied by Accountants.
Dudley Council are claiming that they observed Parkway Road motorists’ poor view for traffic proceeding along Himley Road from Dudley town centre, yet there has never been an accident or a hold up as nearly all motorist leaving Dudley along the Himley Road allowed the cars to feed in from Parkway Road.
Dudley Council claimed that large traffic queues formed at the beginning of the working day. This is total nonsense as there are no queues in the morning and a ONE WAY street system would not have changed that anyway.
This road scheme is totally crazy and stupid as it causes misery for 1000’s of motorist and residents and has brought no advantage or improvement to the people living in Parkway Road.
The two local Labour ward councillors are sitting on the fence and have done nothing to help the people affected. They should be thoroughly ashamed and the only councillor who has come out on the side of the people is Malcolm Davis the UKIP councillor who has pledged his support.
PETER VANGEERSDAELE PLEASE RECONSIDER THIS STUPID AND CRAZY ROAD SCHEME YOU HAVE IMPLEMENT WITHOUT PROPER CONSULTATION AND WITHOUT HAVING BEEN REQUESTED BY THE RESIDENTS OF PARKWAY ROAD.
THE ONE WAY STREET SYSTEM IN PARKWAY ROAD SERVES NO PURPOSE BUT CAUSES MISERY TO ALL THE MOTORISTS WHO WANT TO GET HOME FROM WORK AND ALL THE RESIDENTS AROUND GRANGE ROAD WHO HAVE TO ENDURE LARGE TRAFFIC QUEUES DURING THE AFTERNOON PEAK TIME.
Let me conclude this webpage with a quote from Stephen Mitchell’s modern translation of the Tao Te Ching, in homage to Lao Tzu (ca. 500 B.C)
A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having
realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who
point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
Mary Roberts
99 Himley Road
Dudley
West Midlands
DY1 2QF
Telephone: 01384 251746
Council Email
cllr.mary.roberts@dudley.gov.uk
Personal Email
MRob621@aol.com
KHURSHID AHMED
79 Steppingstone Street
Dudley
West Midlands
DY1 1SB
Telephone: 07973 349632
Council Email
cllr.khurshid.ahmed@dudley.gov.uk
Malcolm Davis
Peartree Cottage
Cromwell Drive
Kates Hill
Dudley
West Midlands
DY2 7ET
Telephone: 01384 866634
Council Email
cllr.malcolm.davis@dudley.gov.uk
On the 21st July 2011 the Express & Star informed us
END OF ROAD FOR SCHEME MAY BE DUE
A controversial one-
The Council’s traffic manager PETER VANGEERSDAELE said
“Councillors and officers recently met on the site to discuss the issues relating to PARKWAY ROAD and they will now discuss possible courses of actions with officers.”
Whilst this is welcome news for all the residents around Grange Road and for all the motorists who have endured substantial delays over the last few months I fail to see the logic of the Council to claim that they now have to hold yet another consultation and waste even more rate payers money.
27 people complained and the Council turned this street into a one-
So please stop messing about and put things back where they were in the first instance.
Nobody, apart from a few selfish and self-
Whilst we try to ensure that the complaint is truthful and factual we cannot accept responsibility for the complaint. If you are affected by the complaint and if you think that the complaint is inaccurate or misleading then please contact us with supporting details of your objection and we will gladly remove any erroneous part from this page
The Complaint Shop
Today is the 27th December 2011 -
Mr. Vandeersgaele are the residents of Dudley just being fobbed off by the Council or have you told us all a deliberate lie to shut us up?