Portmore Park & District Residents Association

Supporting local heritage, quality of life and community

  • Home
  • About
  • Join
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Archive
  • Guest pieces
  • Privacy
  • Events
  • Planning
  • Parking
  • Traffic
  • Schools
  • Green Belt
  • Riverside
  • Litter
  • Surrey
  • Opinion

Archives for February 2015

Weybridge parking review – hope on hold?

scc-elmbridge-parking-strategy-reviewPeople hoping for early action on chronic parking issues which afflict some roads in Weybridge may be disappointed at new plans from Surrey. The idea is sound – a strategic parking review looking at needs as well as restrictions, seeking to free up spaces – but the timing and interim arrangements have left some residents feeling badly let down.

Despite previous talk of Weybridge getting an early review, we have been moved down the queue, behind Cobham. That may mean waiting until 2017 for changes.

Frozen out for now?
Until after the review, Surrey propose not to act on local parking issues unless there is an ‘irrefutable serious road safety implication’. The current system for making numerous changes yearly – to deal with specific local problems soon after they arise – will cease. This would mean  proposals to deal with pressing parking issues in Dorchester Road and near the top of Thames Street being left in limbo.

So where does that leave Dorchester Road residents who were given hope of early action when they took a petition to Surrey (see PETITION RESPONSE DORCHESTER ROAD. WEYBRIDGE FOR INFORMATION)? They would love to know.

Consultation
More positively, the SCC ELMBRIDGE PARKING STRATEGY EXECUTIVE FUNCTION REPORT — presented to the Surrey County Council Local Committee on 23 February 2015 — proposes a high level of consultation, using an external consultant to engage with local groups. PPDRA is determined to ensure that local Weybridge views get a good hearing.

There is a strong feeling locally that there is an overall shortage of parking in Weybridge town centre, and better collaboration is needed between Surrey County Council (responsible for on-street parking), Elmbridge Borough Council (responsible for some off-street parking) and businesses (also responsible for some off-street parking).

Surrey County Council Proposals

So what has Surrey proposed? Well, the SCC Elmbridge Parking Strategy Executive Function report prepared by Rikki Hill has a promising start:

Reasons for Recommendations. In the past, reviews of parking have tended to be reactive in nature and concentrated on where parking was not desirable and so should be controlled or restricted. A more strategic approach would allow us to also consider where parking is needed and how those parking needs may be met.

But the analysis suggests a longer than anticipated wait for action on local issues:

2.8 Adopting this new more holistic approach to reviewing parking will mean that it will not be possible to review the whole of Elmbridge at the same time. We would therefore need to review each area within the borough on a rolling programme and it would make sense to start with the Cobham area (including Stoke D’Abernon and Oxshott) as the Cobham Chamber of Commerce have already collected a considerable amount of information about the needs of local businesses and the amount of existing private off street parking spaces.

2.9 Taking into account the number of possible problems that have been brought to our attention in the last couple of years, we should then look at Weybridge, followed by the Moleseys and the Dittons, then Esher, Claygate and Hinchley Wood. We should finish with Walton & Hersham, as this is where there has most recently been a comprehensive review.

2.10 The aim would be to complete the reviews in all the areas within the next three financial years after which we would review our strategy and consider whether to start the process again or adopt a new approach.

2.11 As there may still be parking issues that arise outside of the above programme, where there is an irrefutable serious road safety implication, we would want to continue with a smaller version of the current review system to deal with these.

The parking issue in Dorchester Road probably doesn’t have “an irrefutable serious road safety implication”.  A case might be made for safety improvements at the top of Thames Street, but our previous experience of arguing for restrictions on safety grounds — at the end of Grotto Road — was that Surrey County Council really wanted evidence of someone being seriously injured (“anyone can say a road is dangerous, but we need to see evidence”).

The root of the issue north of Weybridge High Street is that parking by non-residents has been squeezed out of adjacent roads by restrictions (including residents-only parking).  So Dorchester Road and the top of Thames Street have become the nearest accessible places for town centre workers looking for spaces, leaving some residents with nowhere to park.  And now Weybridge has a new supermarket with no on-site staff parking spaces.

Search

Local News – Downloads

Help save our local riverside car park – comment by 27 April 2025

Weybridge Health Centre Pedestrian and Cycle Access from PPR (PDF 2MB)

PPDRA Newsletter January 2024 – Consultation Special

PPDRA Newsletter September 2023

WEYBRIDGE HUB REDEVELOPMENT Surrey County Council Cabinet Report (June 2023)

Walton Lane Open Space — PPDRA Evidence for Local Green Space

EBC Local Green Spaces study – further spaces – PPDRA submission (07-2022)

PPDRA 2022-0980 letter re St Catherines Beales Lane Weybridge

PPDRA 2022-0397 letter re Garages to the side of 16-17 Grenside Road

PPDRA 2022-0395 letter to EBC re Garages off Grenside Road Weybridge

UPDATED PPDRA Comments for WeyBetterWeybridge (Sept 2021)

PPDRA 2021-4412 letter  re Blenheim House Church Walk Weybridge KT13 8JT

Town Centre: PPDRA Comments for WeyBetterWeybridge (April 2021)

PPDRA 2021-0045 letter to EBC re Las Lilas Devonshire Rd (Mar 2021)

PPDRA 2020-3496 letter to EBC re Grenside Road garages (Mar 2021)

Weybridge Parking Review 2019-20 Decision Report (Jan 2021)

PPDRA 2020-3495 letter to EBC re Grenside Rd garages (with pictures)

PPDRA 2020-2821 letter to EBC re Thames St Warehouse (Dec 2020)

Weybridge Parking Review 2019-20 maps + Wey Road & Round Oak Rd CPZ (Sep 2020)

Parking Review 2019-20 Statement of Reasons (Sep 2020)

Elmbridge Local Plan 2019 Consultation – PPDRA Submission (pdf)

LOCAL PLAN SPECIAL NEWSLETTER  (August 2019 – pdf)

News Articles

  • April 2025 (2)
  • January 2024 (2)
  • October 2023 (1)
  • September 2023 (3)
  • August 2023 (4)
  • June 2023 (1)
  • May 2023 (1)
  • January 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • July 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • June 2021 (2)
  • April 2021 (1)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (1)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (3)
  • August 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (1)
  • September 2017 (2)
  • July 2017 (1)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (2)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • June 2016 (1)
  • May 2016 (2)
  • April 2016 (1)
  • February 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (2)
  • December 2015 (1)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • October 2015 (3)
  • September 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (1)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (1)
  • December 2014 (1)
  • November 2014 (2)
  • October 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (4)

Copyright Portmore Park & District Residents Association 2002-2023