Back in 2019, the Royal Borough’s parking scheme in Sunningdale, Chobham Road was a reminder to residents of a valuable lesson: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Sadly, it’s a lesson RBWM failed to learn and Sunningdale residents are still paying the price.
Before RBWM began its work, a slip road along Chobham Road provided safe parking for eight vehicles with shade provided by six mature cherry trees. RBWM decided improvement was needed, and it would be better—and safer—to replace these eight bays with fourteen bays, which were installed perpendicular to Chobham Road. This meant that drivers reversed into (or out of) the road to park or leave, increasing traffic and the risk of an accident.
The trees weren’t spared either; six trees were replaced with one, which is dead as the Council paid scarce attention, and a few planters instead. This has done nothing to help our carbon footprint.
Sadly, the new parking bays were doomed from the outset by poor planning. The “Disable” bays are very poorly positioned, the carriageway was narrowed and only after much badgering, did we get a pedestrian crossing put in.
The Consultation by RBWM was ill conceived. It simply asked whether more parking would be desirable; they failed to mention the proposed number of bays and the £240,000 cost of this mishap, or £40,000 for each additional parking bay.
This was compounded by those responsible distributing information packs, by hand within the defined consultation area, rather than sending them by post; many of the residents who should have received an information pack never did.
A Freedom of Information request found that, of the 491 respondents to the consultation, 135 gave addresses with postcodes outside the Borough. This would never have been allowed if a resident wished to raise a petition to RBWM. So why the double standards?
Making matters worse, the Council failed to conduct a Traffic Regulation Order, which would have studied the effects of the change on road users and the risk of harm these changes might create.
Despite all of this, both Conservative Councillors representing Sunningdale—Cllr Christine Bateson and Cllr Sayonara Luxton—consistently and uncritically gave their support to this debacle and now this nightmare is a daily reality. The distinct lack of engagement with local residents continues to be a cause for concern.
In a recent survey commissioned by the Parish Council, 48% said highways improvements and maintenance were theirpriorities. Our experience with Chobham Road shows just how things have not changed for the better in this area. If anything, it provides an object lesson for how not to improve local public services.
A good Council would work with residents to identify both problems and solutions, so that changes made can succeed and demonstrate value for (taxpayers) money. It still isn’t clear what problem the Council was trying to solve in this case, or what benefits they hoped to achieve. Councillors come and go, but we residents are left with the fallout of bad decisions, like double parking on an already narrowed carriageway, a kink in the carriageway to accommodate the requirements of the disable bay
Many near-misses and several accidents have resulted from this poorly planned, expensive (£40,000/bay!) change that few people wanted. We can at least minimise the chance of fallout by working together, replacing a clear “I know best” approach to governing to a “We can learn together” approach. We owe it to ourselves to give it a try before even more damage is done.
Published and Promoted by Charles Hollingsworth on behalf of “the Borough first Independents“, both of PO BOX 4919, Maidenhead, SL6 1LS