Agenda item

A verbal update from Carli van Niekerk, Major Highway Projects Engineer, on the Station Forecourt Scheme and to note the written update on other projects (to follow).

Station Forecourt Scheme

Carli van Niekerk, Major Highway Projects Engineer, gave an update on the Station Forecourt Scheme, the main points included:

·       This was the second project to be funded by the Future Highstreet Funding.

·       Three phased development, with works expected to last approximately 1 year.

·       Tree trimming and vegetation removal due to take place along Churchfields Road during off peak hours.

·       Some parking would be maintained on the forecourt for disabled/taxi spaces and buses.

·       The remainder of the parking spaces would be available in Central car park.

·       The Eastern Goods site was due to be developed into additional parking to be available later in the year. 

·       There would be a dedicated in box for queries, during the construction phase.

Questions:

·       What were the timelines for the phases?

Answer: It varied. Timelines could be provided later if needed.

·       Would South Western Road remain open and viable for the flow of traffic during works, as any restriction would make the busy route worse?

Answer: Some resurfacing work on South Western Road was required, but there was no plan to close the road during the day. There would be night closures and a two way traffic light system.

·       If closing at night, that may impact the many refuge trucks which travelled out of hours, so you would need to plan around them.

·       Central car park appeared to have two pricing structures now, how would you manage the difference?

Answer: There were two structures, short stay and long stay rates. Cars would only be able to park in the area they had a ticket for.

·       What was the plan for pickups and drop offs?

Answer: Currently there were some spaces and the car park to the west would also be available, however as part of the review of the process moving forward, if changes were needed in the future it would be address.

Maltings and Central Carp Park

Victoria Moloney, Head of Economy & Regeneration and Richard Walters, Head of Service, Major Projects and Enabling responded to questions on the written update attached to the agenda.

Questions:

The key was to make the city more accessible, rather than making parking more accessible.

Answer: The historic principle of the Parking Strategy was being considered in line with the current Parking Strategy. We would be looking at what was the best use of land in the city centre, which would include further engagement.

At the end of report, it mentioned an immediate action to ‘smarten up the centra car park’ what did that mean and was there an intention to address the poor quality of the road surface in the car park, once the River Project had completed?

Answer: There had been substantial investment in the city, which at present did not live up to the quality we were trying to create – interim measures wilts other works are ongoing around the city – discussions with owners. Try to minimise the disruption.

The update report sets the message that the original scheme is not now going to take place, and as the original funding partner was no longer involved, this meant that the library would remain where it was and the development of the car park was open for discussion again. It was hoped that the Board would see opportunities for input regarding any future development of the car park.

What was planned for the old British Heart Foundation (BHF) site?

Answer: The BHF site was not in the ownership of the council and was separate to the rest of the central car park project. Following covid/Novichok, people had different requirements from a city centre.

Could the council approach the owners of the BHF site to get them to do something about the condition it was currently in?

Answer: The council had reached out but there had not been a lot of engagement from the owner.

Could you provide the figures for the amount of people injured due to the temporary pavement situation on Fisherton Street?

Answer: The data was not known and could be fed back the Board at a later date.

When the Fisherton Street project was first proposed some years ago, it was said that there would be stiff penalties on the contract, were these being applied?

Answer: All works follow a standard contract for civil works and there were clauses if the works were not complied to.