Solihull residents fear street parking and speeding is putting lives at risk

Residents in Solihull streets fear that a dangerous combination of parking problems and speeding could have tragic consequences.

Those living in Harvard Road and Wellsford Avenue, in Lyndon, have made a fresh plea for steps to be taken to deal with the issues they are having to deal with on a daily basis.

Tempers have frayed over the number of vehicles clogging kerbs or blocking driveways, many of which belong to those working on the nearby Coventry Road.

And there is also mounting concern about the growing number of drivers who use the residential streets, and several others in the vicinity, in an effort to avoid heavy traffic on both the A45 itself and Lode Lane.

A petition calling for parking restrictions and traffic-calming measures was submitted last year, but Solihull Council investigations found that the streets aren’t deemed a high enough priority.

Jessie Lonie, who is in her 80s and has been a Harvard Road resident for 55 years, said she would see cars outside her home every day.

“We have tried petitions etcetera in the past and nothing seems to ever get it resolved,” said the retired mum-of-one.

“They start coming in the morning before quarter to eight and ride round and round looking to squeeze in somewhere. It’s heaven on Saturdays and Sundays.”

Michele McCutcheon, who has lived in the neighbourhood all her life, said vehicles being left for hours at a time was causing real issues.

“People have genuinely had enough,” she said.

“It’s not fair on any of the neighbours, we don’t have a life anymore.

“If we want to have a funeral we have to put out cones … if a car alarm goes off we have to put up with it all day.”

Residents revealed that one neighbour had been forced to get a taxi to work after being blocked in, while others have reported motorists getting “quite nasty” when confronted.

Kevin Plant, aged 50, said there were a lot of elderly residents in the area and there were growing concerns that roads were being “used as a racetrack” and had become “absolutely chocka”.

“It will be a sad thing if it takes [a fatal accident] for Solihull Council to wake up … It will happen.”

Cllr Ade Adeyemo (Lib Dem, Lyndon) said much of the parking was linked to businesses on the Coventry Road, just over the border in Birmingham.

He said there were “clearly not enough” spaces to cope with the sizeable workforce employed by the companies, with workers at TSB said to be causing particular difficulties.

“It’s really blatant and that’s frustrating local residents.”

A TSB spokesman said the banking giant was “very sorry” to hear of the issues residents were experiencing.

“Since we have been made aware of the issues, we have spoken to our partners at Ariel House on a number of occasions to try and ensure that local residents are not further inconvenienced.

“We have nearly 150 allocated parking spaces at our offices and in order to try to reduce on-street we also try and encourage our partners to think about other ways of travelling to work.

“They are encouraged to think about car sharing, walking or cycling to work or using public transport.

“We are also looking to see if we can secure additional ‘paid for’ parking for our staff on other local sites. We will obviously continue to work very closely with local residents to try and resolve this issue.”

A council spokesman said: “Harvard Road/Wellsford Avenue was considered as part of the 2018/19 highways programme and it was placed in 109 position with regards to priority. This would typically mean that it would not be considered again for a further three years.

“However, as there were changes to parking at the Wheatsheaf pub and additional numbers of people working along the A45 it was considered there was a material change in circumstance. As such, we reconsidered this location as part of the 2019/20 highways programme prioritisation.

“On assessment, these locations were again not prioritised and there are no plans to introduce any changes or new traffic management measures at this time.”

Read more: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/solihull-residents-fear-street-parking-17100119

(Image: David Irwin).