BPARA members have reported the illegal parking of vehicles owned by Enterprise in Bletchley on the road and grass verges at various times over a 7-day period, to MKCC. This stretch of Sherwood Drive, opposite the rail station, has a TRO with double yellow lines on both sides of the carriageway – see pictures below.
As you’ll see from the pictures, the vehicles and vehicle transporter cause an obstruction to pedestrians exiting the redway between Wilton Avenue and Sherwood Drive, as well as other motorists on Sherwood Drive. At the end of the redway at Sherwood Drive, are metal railings and vehicles parked on both sides of the railings block sight lines left and right forcing pedestrians – including school children – into the road to try and cross safely.
This hazard was not identified in the recent West Bletchley On-Street Parking Study, which assessed current car parking usage in West Bletchley, with a focus on residential on-street parking, Bletchley Station car park. and the off-street car park on Sherwood Drive adjacent to Challenge House Business Centre.
The results and proposals from the Study only cover measures to address commuter and student parking in the residential roads close to the rail station. The study identified under-capacity use (59% to 64%) of the rail station carpark and parking in another carpark on MKCC land close to Challenge House are areas – hopefully these will be addressed at some point in the future, as well as at Enterprise. Whereas the location opposite the rail station may be ideal for Enterprise, its business has obviously increased over the years and it would now benefit from having an off-site storage area – there are plenty of unused commercial sites within a short distance in addition to the available space at the rail station carpark. (Enterprise also has another site at Northfield where vehicles are parked on the pavement and grass verge).
Councillor Jenny Wilson-Markhew, MKCC Cabinet Member for Public Realm, responded immediately to advise that she was referring the matter to the officer responsible for the Parking Study who was best placed to manage this issue on his return from annual leave. MKCC Parking Office have responded that they will “try and get the enforcement officers to the area.” The matter has been reported to other relevant parties, including Thames Valley Police.
