The Kingston and North Kingston Neighbourhood Committee met to discuss community grants, traffic management orders, and parking regulations. The committee approved funding for grants to Man & Boy and Voices of Hope, and approved traffic management orders relating to the removal of parking on Rolls Road and parking regulations for the Cambridge Road Estate.

Cambridge Road Estate Parking

The committee voted to approve recommendations relating to new traffic management orders for parking regulation on the Cambridge Road Estate. The recommendations included:

• Noting the position in relation to the Parking Management Plan.
• Approving in principle the introduction of a Permit Parking Area to operate Monday to Saturday.
• Delegating the consideration of any representations received in response to the Statutory Notice to the Director for Highways, Transport, and Regulatory Services, in consultation with Councillor Olly Wehring, Chair of the Kingston and North Kingston Neighbourhood Committee, the Portfolio Holder, affected Ward Members and the Director of Housing.
• Bringing a further report back to Committee within 6 months of any parking regulations being implemented to report on the representations received and the response.

The report before the committee stated that planning consent for redevelopment of the Cambridge Road Estate requires the council to introduce parking regulations to manage parking within the estate, and mitigate the risk of displacement into the surrounding neighbourhood.

Councillor Olly Wehring expressed his frustration that the committee was being asked to make a decision on a traffic management order with a consultation closing in approximately five hours. He said:

My problem is that this is the same feeling that I've felt many times in the seven years that I've been a councillor, where I feel like I'm being bounced.

He also noted that the new properties had been ready for people to move into for the better part of a year.

A council officer explained that the reason for the urgency was a delay in the delivery of the project, and a commitment from the housing department to provide parking permits to new residents. She also noted that because nobody was yet living on the estate, the traffic management order would not impact anyone.

Councillor Roger Hayes agreed with Councillor Olly Wehring, saying:

This is the third time this evening we have run out of feet to shoot and we seem to do it every single bloody time. And communications is not difficult. Why, therefore, do we seem to find it difficult every single time we attempt it?

Councillor James Manthel asked if there had been any objections or comments received, and was told that the officer had been told to bring the item and had not checked.

Councillor Susan Skipwith said that the council did not have the resources to deal with all of these massive projects, and that this put a strain on residents. She asked why some of the money that comes with development could not be used to resource the council to make sure that things are as painless as possible for residents.

The committee approved the recommendations unanimously, with Councillor Olly Wehring noting that if the concerns were greater than anticipated, the matter would be brought back to the committee.

Rowlls Road Parking

The committee voted to approve a traffic management order (TMO) relating to the removal of on-street parking on Rowlls Road to allow access to off-street parking for the Cambridge Road Estate development, and associated no waiting restrictions.

The committee had been asked to consider objections to the TMO.

The report before the committee noted that the developer had carried out the work before the TMO was in place, believing that planning permission was sufficient.

The report also outlined the objections received, which included:

• Premature removal of parking bays before consultation and lack of resident notification and inadequate consultation process.
• Loss of resident/shared-use parking and increased local parking pressure.
• Use of outdated parking survey data (from 2020) to justify changes.
• Conflicts with prior planning assurances or documentation.
• Concerns about road and pedestrian safety, including blind bends and reversing vehicles.
• Lack of clarity on who can use the new parking bays.
• Requests for mitigation measures, such as restoring or reallocating parking for local residents.

The officer's response to these objections was also included in the report.

Councillor Roger Hayes said that people stopped noticing signs on lamp posts 50 years ago, and that the excuses that had come through were utterly invalid. He said that the council had to learn to do better, and communicate with people in ways in which they're actually likely to notice.

Councillor Emily Davey asked if the residents had been written to and apologised to, and was told that this had not yet happened, but would be done after the committee's decision.

Councillor Sabah Hamed asked how the council would ensure that this wouldn't happen again, and was told that the officer looking after the job knew better now what was needed to be done.

Malcolm Wood, from Countryside, the developer working in partnership with Kingston Council on the CRE project, said that with the benefit of hindsight, they would have done things differently. He said that they would make it very clear to people what was happening in phase two of the project.

Councillor Farshid Sadr-Hashemi said that it was critical that the council didn't take its eye off the relationship with the local residents, and that the fact that somebody leaves is an unacceptable reason.

Councillor Anne Owen said that everybody's doing the best they can with the knowledge and the information and the skills that they've got, and that there's all the empathy that you need to put in, because people do get horribly upset with all the noise and the dust, and so they will overreact.

Councillor James Manthel asked if the council was satisfied that there's no risk to pedestrians with the loss of that pavement, and was told that a road safety audit had been carried out and no safety issues had been identified.

Councillor Susan Skipwith said that she didn't think that it was fair that all of the burden of resident relations falls on the developer, and that the council has a huge responsibility as well.

Councillor Olly Wehring said that the measures themselves do fly, they are acceptable, there are conversations that can be had going forward from here to mitigate the loss of these parking spaces.

Councillor Patrick Hall said that he had reservations about this, and that the numbers were just not really substantiated. He said that he was really uncomfortable with it, and that he thought the council was doing the residents a bit of disservice on this.

The committee voted to approve the recommendations, with two abstentions.

Community Grants

The committee approved two applications for Neighbourhood Community Grants.

• £3,000 to Man & Boy to support their 2025 inclusive activities program.
• £3,000 to Voices of Hope to support their ongoing Bright Box programme.

James Geach, Neighbourhood and Communities Manager for Serviton, introduced the applications, noting that both met the minimum requirements of the program.

Tom, Grants Manager at Man & Boy, introduced the project, explaining that the funding would support their core work impacting men and boys through their standard three service streams of camps, activities, and the Climate Connect course.

Marianna Gales, project lead for Bright Box, introduced the Bright Box project, explaining that it is a weekly meal kit programme delivering nutritious recipes and fresh ingredients to primary school children.

Councillor Farshid Sadr-Hashemi said that he fully endorses Bright Box, and congratulated them. He asked how much each of these boxes are now, and how inflation is playing with the size of the food and the cost per box.

Councillor Susan Skipwith said that she fully supports the project, but that it feels like something that should be getting grant funding, not from the Council primarily, because it's such a long-term project and it's also so much in line with so many public health goals. She asked what percentage is being funded by grants from the Council versus other grants that they've managed to get.

The committee voted to approve both grants unanimously.

Public Question Time

During public question time, Mark Manners asked a follow-up question regarding the New Road, Kings Road and Crescent Road ETMO¹. He noted that the enforcement camera has now been installed, but the replacement no-motor vehicle sign has still not yet been installed. He asked what the current target date for installation of the new sign is, and whether it will be amended to improve its visibility.

Yunus Hamadi, Principal Engineer, said that the sign had been vandalized and stolen twice, and that they didn't put the sign up until they were sure they had the camera in place. He said that he had asked the contractor to put the sign up as quickly as possible, and that he was hoping to get some date, but unfortunately he couldn't for tonight.

Councillor Olly Wehring said that this isn't a revenue generating exercise, but an attempt to deal with the traffic that has blighted North Kingston for quite some time.

Jack Matthews raised the issue of the bike hangar due to be put in Carlisle Close. He said that neither himself nor any of the other owners of Remnant Court or Stewards Court were aware of this, and that they had not been consulted on this. He asked why the cycle hangar is being installed in Carlisle Close as opposed to Manor Gate Road.

Yunus Hamadi said that public notices had been published and put in the street and London Gazette, and that no objection had been received. He said that the location is a very good location for it, it's an isolated and it's away from all other traffic and it is safe place to be.

Councillor Ian George said that it would be quite nice to have a little break and have a quick look at it, involving some of the residents as well.

Councillor Roger Hayes said that we may be required to use certain methods of communication which are long outmoded, but we're not restricted to only using that, and we must get into the 21st century and communicate with people in ways in which they're actually likely to notice.

Jack Matthews also raised the issue of the traffic lights at Asda. He said that they're inefficient, they're timely, and they don't need to be. He asked if the time afforded to cars entering and exiting Asda could be reduced, and more time given to the actual traffic on the main road.

Yunus Hamadi said that all traffic signals are owned by TfL², so any changes to the timing would need to be discussed with TfL. He said that he was happy to take this with the TfL and ask.