Action Promised on Lower Leas Park Chaos

We all know that the position in the Lower Leas Park this weekend (and in previous weekends) has not been acceptable, and was not sustainable.

I've been pushing Council Officers and the Leader for radical action, and I was promised an update today. I'm really pleased to say I've had that response from Head of Paid service Susan Priest tonight, and it really is a big step forward, with a massive increase in bin capacity, the banning of BBQs, closing of the Coastal Park Car Park (accessed from Radnor Cliff) overnight and a number of other measures.

Susan says

"I'm pleased to confirm that this evening the Council have agreed the following measures:

* Six additional bins - each with a 1110 litre * capacity - will be installed tomorrow in the Coastal Park;

- Barbecuing will be banned in the Coastal Park with immediate effect. We will let the public know through changed signage at the Coastal Park and through our usual communications channels including the media, website and social media. BBQ pods will be removed;

- We will refresh the double yellow lines along Radnor Cliff Road;

- We will install a lockable barrier on the Coastal Park car park and close this overnight from 8pm - 8am. We are finding that many groups are staying in the Coastal Park until 11pm so we hope that this will discourage them from staying late into the evening;

- We are considering changing the maximum stay in the Coastal Park from all day (potentially to a maximum of 4 hours) to discourage people from all-day stays. This will be subject to us consulting / securing various permissions etc.;

- Additional signage is being prepared. We are exploring the use of large electronic signage located at various points in the district / access points to the park areas;

- We have put an alert on our webpage for the Coastal Park warning people that the park is experiencing high levels of visitors and as such they might find social distancing impossible;

- We are also increasing the amount of enforcement and advisory officers to give a higher visual presence, while redeploying staff to park keeper roles to ensure we have more resources to maintain the park at this incredibly busy time. We will be issuing on the spot £100 fines for people that breach our PSPO; and

-We will continue to work with the Police to ensure that there is a joint enforcement presence in the park.

"We hope that these measures, which will be implemented swiftly, will improve the situation and we will continue to monitor the situation."There should be a letter in the next few days explaining these changes delivered to all doors in the most affected areas (specially Radnor Cliff area).

We need to have a discussion with Radnor Cliff residents about the parking restrictions in their road: if we get overnight car park closures and reduced hours then that will help solve one issue, but no-one wants to see more visitor cars pushed into Radnor Cliff, day or night. We need to look at how that can be avoided. I've already asked for more detail on that, but its clear what we currently have does not work in the summer.

There is going to have to be some tuning of some of these changes to get them right I'm sure, and we'll have to see some really concerted Social Media, signage and more to immediately see a drop in numbers driving from elsewhere. However, I think these are big moves, being offered in good faith, and should make a real difference. I've been pushing hard for changes, and I'm really pleased to have had a positive response.

* that's 6 pretty big bins - bigger than any others currently in the Park!