Meeting Success for Royal Military Avenue Residents

Folkestone Lib Dem Councillors Peter Carroll and Tim Prater have expressed their delight at the outcome of a recent public meeting in Cheriton called to address speeding and parking in Royal Military Avenue.

Peter Carroll said:

"I think we made real progress in the meeting. It looks like Kent County Council are going to deliver a system of 'nose in parking'. Local residents believe that this will give them more parking spaces and reduce the effective width of the road thereby reducing speeding."

Tim Prater said:

"It was a really refreshing experience to go to a meeting that appeared to achieve success so quickly. As well as the new parking initiative it looks like Mr & Mrs Bickley who have lived in the road for many years will finally get a 'drop kerb'."

Royal Military Avenue in Cheriton is a wide road, and a number drivers are ignoring speed limits and accelerating to dangerous speeds, with residents describing the road as "like a speed track" at times. There are fears of a major accident, especially with parking problems in the road also seeing parking close to junctions and even double parking in the road causing vehicles to swerve.

At the meeting on Wednesday 30th July chaired by Lib Dem Councillor Peter Carroll, the Panel, including Geoff Mee, Director of Kent Highways, Robert Bliss, Leader of Shepway District Council, and Keith Ferrin, Kent County Council Cabinet member for Highways listened to residents views and saw photos of parking in the street.

Geoff Mee, who had earlier also visited Royal Military Avenue to survey the area, told the meeting that he would commit to bringing back proposals to introduce "oblique" parking on both sides of Royal Military Avenue by painting "nose-in" parking bays at the north end of the road. He hoped this would increase the availability of parking in the road, and also would have the effect of narrowing the road to more normal widths, which will also hopefully slow traffic.

In response to other points from residents, Mr Mee also committed that the proposal would allow for marked pedestrian crossing points. He will also look into a speed indicator for the road, which will flash a warning to speeding motorists.

Speed testing will be undertaken in the road at the start of the autumn term, and the results of this will be added to the proposal.

The plans will then be put to local consultation, and then taken to Shepway and Kent transport chiefs to get a go-ahead for the scheme. Geoff Mee could not give a firm implementation date, but said that he would hope that the scheme, if agreed, could be in place by around March or April 2009.

Cheriton PSCO's Mark Ball and Keith Sansun who were also at the meeting and committed to running speedwatch sessions in the road, and to look into powers available to move on the TIR lorries that are parking especially at the south end of the avenue.