4 replies to this topic

[alexbax1]

My wife parked her silver Ford Ka on the street next to the train station (the Robins) in a designated car spot (on the bend of the road) on Friday the 27th August. That day she became ill at work and had to be brought home so her car was left in the parking bay. She was ill for a week and was unable to leave the house and collect her car. On Saturday 4th Sept a police officer came to our house to let her know that someone had let down all of her tyres. Luckily she had not walked to the station when she was unwell to pick up her car to find it in that state... In fact the tyres had been punctured which has cost us £150 to replace, just at a time when my wife is about to be made redundant.

We think someone simply did not like having the car parked there and decided to take action themselves, without having any idea why the car was left there in the first place. We are so surprised that someone can vandalise someone's car in this way over something so minor.

There are now signs that say you can only park there for 4 hours which I'm sure whoever did this to our car will be vigilantly checking...

[catbazza]

alexbax1, on 22 September 2010 - 06:39 PM, said:

My wife parked her silver Ford Ka on the street next to the train station (the Robins) in a designated car spot (on the bend of the road) on Friday the 27th August. That day she became ill at work and had to be brought home so her car was left in the parking bay. She was ill for a week and was unable to leave the house and collect her car. On Saturday 4th Sept a police officer came to our house to let her know that someone had let down all of her tyres. Luckily she had not walked to the station when she was unwell to pick up her car to find it in that state... In fact the tyres had been punctured which has cost us £150 to replace, just at a time when my wife is about to be made redundant.

We think someone simply did not like having the car parked there and decided to take action themselves, without having any idea why the car was left there in the first place. We are so surprised that someone can vandalise someone's car in this way over something so minor.

There are now signs that say you can only park there for 4 hours which I'm sure whoever did this to our car will be vigilantly checking...

Unfortunately if you have been keeping abreast with the forums you will have seen that it has been reported on here that a group of youths do like to lark about up at the station area at nights & so the finger of suspicion lies there although I am not saying it is them but!.

It is ludicrous that you cannot leave your car in a legaly marked bay or anywhere for that matter, when whoever did it buys a car themselves and someone comes along & vandalises it will they just shrug thier shoulders & say Ah! well! it was to be expected as I used to vandalise cars myself.

[Matt]

Hi alexbax1,

I'm sorry tabout your experience and that you are not the only victim of this sort of behaviour; as has been pointed out this topic is a recurring one, though your experience worse than most.

The vast majority of local residents are responsible and considerate and take problems up in appropriate ways.

A (very) small number seem to feel the solution is things like this.

Parking issues do seem to get people worked up more than most issues (i was epaking to someone who was in tears recently over being accosted by a resident in Skipton who didn't want them to park on their road - it's not just Burley), but the reality is that there will never be anough parking because this village, like many others, was designed long before the car. A huge amount of effort goes in to maximising parking provision whilst allowing traffic to flow, and its sad that some people don't want understand the problem and engage with that, sometimes not realising what the consequences are.

Theft of signs is an increasingly common occurence, with signs being stolen on Main St. and Prospect Road. Likewise vandalism. It is a real shame that some people think that damaging private property or stealing taxpayers' property is acceptable under any circumstances.

I very much hope that if anyone is reading this forum and wondering how to express perfectly valid frustration about parking provision, they choose to engage with the processes in place to deliver what improvements we can.

There is a process for enforcing restrictions that does not involve vandalism - and there are people paid to do it. if you want to see some enforcement officers on a particular road, i will ask them to visit. Similarly I am sometimes asked to reduce enforcement activity in some areas (in the past, west terrace). Where possible, we try to ensure that enforcement reflects local priorities.

Having said that, there's no way of knowing whether parking concerns underly the damage in this case, or just an unfortunate and rare act of vandalism.

There will need to be a further review of parking arrangements in the village next year to look at whther existing regulations are working - the Station / Prospect road area remains a cause of concern (4 hours is perhaps too prescriptive, and the issue has moved down the road).

All views and comment are welcome. Whilst no-one gets everything they want, all changes introduced are a result of feedback and resident's requests. There's a simple message: If you don't engage, your views will not be known and therefore cannot be acted on. If you do, no-one can make any promises, but we do try our best!

Matt

[alexbax1]

Thank you Matt, I appreciate your response.

I think this is a problem which is definitely causing tensions between residents and commuters (as is highlighted by the number of posts on this topic). Even this morning I witnessed a resident threatening a commuter for parking his car on Station Road. I think the 4 hour limit should be reviewed on Prospect Road* as this is totally inappropriate if someone is travelling on the train to and from Leeds, even if they are not commuting to work.

Unfortunately I think many residents feel angry because they think that people do not need to drive to the station (this is what I overheard being shouted at the commuter this morning) without having any knowledge of whether or not this is the case. Most people in Burley are decent people who normally listen to and have respect for other people's views, however I think because this situation is almost 'faceless' i.e. people just see the cars there and feel annoyed, they are then taking steps that are illegal and threatening. I believe some work needs to be done to talk to residents and commuters to make them feel that the appropriate channels of complaint will work for them. This is especially true at this uncertain time when many people are feeling stressed due to financial/job security and therefore tensions run higher than usual.

Hopefully the situation can be improved.

(*apologies for mistake in earlier post - this is the road where my wife was parked)

[Denis]

Exactly. How long does it take YOU(whoever is reading this) to walk to the station. I am sure looking at those who get out of their cars the vast majority are neither ill nor disabled.In fact the disabled spots are rarely used!!!!
Walk briskly and let it be your recommended 30 mins exercise 5 days a week.