I’ve been contacted by a resident concerned about the risk of driving from the side street onto the A1086 Coast Road in Blackhall Rocks when visibility is obstructed by parked vehicles.
This is an issue I’ve taken up previously with the authorities after residents reported similar concerns about sight lines affected by vehicles parked along the Coast Road. Background details can be found in an article published on these pages back in June 2014: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2014/06/reports-of-obstructive-parking-on-coast.html
Although it was before my time as a county councillor I’m told that the parking bays were marked out along the Coast Road several years ago in a way that would discourage drivers from parking either entirely on the road, which often obstructed the traffic flow, or entirely on the public footpath, which obstructed wheelchair and pushchair users. With that in mind it looks as though the problems experienced today are the unintended consequences of that parking scheme.
However I think it’s fair to say that since the bays were marked out car ownership has increased significantly, meaning that more vehicles are being parked in residential streets or on the main road. Clearly this is a contributory factor to the current problem.
Although a solution may not be as straight forward as we would like I’ve asked for this matter to be referred to the authorities with a request that they consider a way to mitigate the risk to drivers of pulling out of the side streets into the main road.
I’ll update on progress as soon as I have a response from the authorities, but in the meantime if anyone has had any similar experiences - or perhaps a realistic suggestion that might solve this particular problem - please get in touch and I’ll pass all correspondence to the relevant authorities for their attention.
