Safe parking scheme for Middle Street, Blackhall Colliery

I've received confirmation today that bollards are scheduled to be installed along Middle Street soon to prevent vehicles pulling into the public footpath when parking. The scheme will be subject to consultation with businesses and shop owners in the affected area. Background details can be found in an article published on this site in October last year: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2023/10/revised-safe-parking-scheme-for.html

From the article shown in the link above you'll see it's taken quite a long time to get to this point, with some pitfalls along the way. Unavoidably the original plans were put on hold during the lockdown period a couple of years ago. The funding stream for the scheme was then abandoned after the Towns & Villages (T&V) programme was suspended shortly after the coalition took control of the council. Finally, once the T&V programme was reinstated a revised scheme, intended to prevent parking altogether outside the shops on Middle Street, was scrapped after some shop owners expressed concerns that the scheme might have an adverse impact on their businesses. 

So you can see that what started originally as a problem of parked cars restricting access to the shops soon developed into a wider safety concern where drivers were pulling onto the public footpath when trying to straighten their vehicles whilst parking. Clearly this posed a risk to pedestrians and other road users, and there have been several reports of near-misses caused by this dangerous practice. With that in mind a 'safety-first' scheme aimed at preventing vehicles trespassing onto the public footpath became the overriding priority, rather than simply addressing concerns about illegally parked cars. 

In addition to the bollards increased patrols by the parking enforcement team will be an integral part of the new scheme and drivers who don't qualify for parking in restricted areas will be directed to on-street parking in nearby streets or to the public parking area at Blackhall Community Centre.

Although the original intention was to install an aesthetically pleasing scheme which would limit parking outside the shops the ultimate aim of the final scheme will be to prevent dangerous driving practices, and thereby protect pedestrians from cars driving into and along the public footpath.

I'll update on progress as soon as the scheme has been endorsed or otherwise by businesses and shop owners on Middle Street. In the meantime please make every effort to park with consideration for pedestrians and other road users if you need to park at this location.