We did it!
We got West Sussex County Council to abandon their plans to remove the yellow lines and turn Street Hill into a public car park again – and we did it the old fashioned way….instead of sitting on our backsides muttering about it we actually worked together to show WSCC that the real local residents most affected by the dangers of heavy parking on Street Hill wanted the lines retained.
I just wondered who it was locally who wanted the lines removed – were they people who lived along our road of 53 houses? So I composed and printed off a brief flyer and delivered one to every house. It was raining, some houses had feisty dogs who appeared only too willing to hurl themselves at a hand as it pushed a leaflet through the letterbox and almost every house had a letterbox in a different position.
The flyer listed the reasons why I supported the retention of the yellow lines and my e mail address should they wish to comment. Then I went home for a sandwich and waited, wondering if I was just another retired old fart with nothing better to do than get worked up about parked cars.
The rest of the day passed by without any response so I was preparing to shrug my shoulders and admit defeat. Then in the evening my blackberry started pinging as people replied…”totally support”…”thank you for doing this”….”have already contacted WSCC”…….I had a result!
Within two days I had e mails of support from a third of the houses I had canvassed….
I must add that we are a very private, suburban road. We know our immediate neighbours very well, a few others are familiar by sight but about 80% are completely unknown to us. I was swapping e mails with people who I wouldn’t recognise! We came to the conclusion that we needed to reach the 60% who had not replied in order to get a sense of local feeling – otherwise we might fall into the trap of being a vocal minority claiming a false mandate….not uncommon in the UK or the USA, I fear.
So we drew up a petition and a team called on every house to invite signatures.
The response was overwhelming. Every house visited was not only keen to sign but happy to give voice to their own frustrations over WSCC’s intentions. Eventually we had signatures from 51 out of 53 households – and the two who did not sign were on holiday and would not return until after the deadline for responses had passed. But neighbours assured me that both household would have supported us.
I scanned the completed petition and sent one copy to the WSCC official who was implementing the proposal and another to the elected member who was chairing the relevant committee. Then we waited for the next step, a public meeting where the WSCC would report their own conclusions and take comments.
At the start of the meeting it was clear that the news was good. 99% of the public response (which almost entirely came from our road) was for retaining the yellow lines. It was also clear that the county engineer agreed with our view that parking along that hill would be dangerous at any time. So the proposal was to keep the lines as they were.
2.4 The majority of the objections are with regards to a revocation of the restrictions that formed part of the original proposals.
2.5 Road markings installed as part of the original proposals have been in place for approximately four months. During this time WSCC officers have not received any complaints from members of the public with regards to either not being able to park along Street Hill or with regards to displacement of parking into other roads on the network.
Towards the end of their report, in the dry, unemotional officialise that must always be the signature style of such pronouncements could nevertheless be found the very essence of representative democracy, the leitmotif of 1000 years of law and custom that developed into government by consent rather than diktat.
6.2 If the proposals are implemented some members of the public may not believe West Sussex County Council is acting in their best interests.
At the meeting one or two voices from different parts of our town claimed that they were speaking on behalf of others when they complained about the parking restrictions. But they could provide no hard evidence to back up their claims. Vague references to “chatting to others” was just not good enough when I could honestly say, as I did, that, on this topic, I was truly representing the views of my neighbours.
Strange to say, I felt highly privileged to convey that message and just briefly felt a bond with all those other people, often nameless, who have spoken up for their fellows in years gone by in Britain and North America.
Or am I over egging the pudding?
