Residents Parking

As you will no doubt be aware, Cheshire East have been running a consultation on whether residents parking schemes are desired in certain streets.

I have received the results of the consultation, with some rather baffling interpretation from the highways department.

Overall, 375 people returned questionnaires. Considering the tens of thousands of people who live in Macclesfield this is seen as somewhat of a disappointment. Which I think is odd - we're a bit loopy if we believe that a large number of people were going to partake in the survey. If you don't live in one of the affected streets then you're not going to reply. And even if you do live in one, there's a fair chance that you don't drive and therefore don't care about parking. Or even you can't get to the exhibition.

The street with the most respondents was Coare street*. Of 65 residences, 14 responded, which makes 22%. All of these were in favour, which according to highways means 22% of respondents were in favour of a residents parking scheme on Coare street.

Except in my book it means that 100% were in favour of residents parking in Coare street.

The story from Highways is that this isn't enough to do anything. Personally, I think it's more than enough. Overall, 86% of respondents wanted residents schemes, and 10% didn't with the remainder unsure. That seems enough to me to suggest that in streets where there are real problems, the public believes that residents parking is the best solution.

To suggest that it's insufficient response to proceed isn't quite right. I don't live in one of those streets, but I would feel cheated if I did - considering the level of response.

However, there is a glimmer of hope. There MAY be a second stage on consultation to see if they can get a response level that they deem appropriate. At least if there is more consultation it'll be good news for the Lib Dems - they can get some more leaflets delivered free of charge.

* The next two most popular streets were:
Great King Street 21% responders, 20% in favour.
Lord St 19% responders, 19% in favour.
Figures may be inaccurate. The text report I was sent didn't match the spreadsheet. Will confirm when I get correct figures.