Determined resident convinces council to change parking restrictions

Renfrewshire Council recently revealed plans to begin enforcing new national pavement parking restrictions, also announcing which streets would be made exempt.

The list of Renfrewshire streets to be made exempt from the new ban included five from the Craighead estate in Bishopton: Cawdor Crescent, Ettrick Drive, Morar Crescent, Teviot Drive, and Yarrow Crescent.

However, the exemption only applied to one side of these streets, meaning that cars on the other side would have to park with all four wheels on the road.

As we previously reported, long-time Yarrow Crescent resident Kenneth Simpson felt that exempting only one side would make the estate’s narrow roads “almost impossible” to use, and that essential services like ambulances and bin lorries would not be able to get through.

Now, it would appear that Kenneth’s tireless efforts to rally residents and canvass the council have borne fruit, after road officials agreed to his request for a site visit.

Two members of the council’s roads department visited Yarrow Crescent on September 6, allowing Kenneth and residents from the neighbouring streets to highlight the problems a single-side exemption would cause.

“We demonstrated to them physically what their proposals would look like,” Kenneth said, “so they had the opportunity to see what it would actually be like in practice.

“We had a really good open discussion with them. Everybody who was there had the chance to put their views forward and explain how it would impact them.”

Kenneth Simpson, centre, with councillor James MacLaren, left (Image: Gordon Terris)

The demonstration was a successful one, with the council officers agreeing that the streets of the Craighead estate were narrow enough to necessitate pavement parking on both sides.

They informed Kenneth that the roads department will recommend to the Infrastructure Land and Environment policy board - when it next meets in November - that the five streets in the estate should have the exemption applied to both sides.

Though the decision is still to be ratified, Kenneth says the officials "can see no reason why the recommendation would not be approved.”

Kenneth said he had been “inundated with people thanking me for the effort that’s been going on,” but insisted that it wasn’t just down to him.

“It’s not been a solo effort by myself,” he said.

“This has only happened because of the weight of public opinion expressed by people within the estate, and the amount of pressure we’ve all put on the council to object to the proposal as it stands.”

Another official present at the site visit last week was James MacLaren, councillor for Bishopton and Bridge of Weir. Having previously called it a “crazy situation,” Cllr MacLaren said that a “sensible solution” had been reached.

“It’s a good result. It still needs to be approved, but it seems likely that it will be,” said the councillor, who is also a member of the policy board in question.

“In the event of the recommendation being accepted, I’ll probably comment that ‘common sense has prevailed,’” he added.

Yarrow Crescent is narrow even with vehicles parking on the curb (Image: Gordon Terris)

A spokesperson for Renfrewshire Council said: “We met with residents in Yarrow Crescent last week. These streets represent a special case and we have agreed to make changes which will exempt this and neighbouring similar roads from the pavement parking ban.

“The proposed traffic order will be put to councillors at the Infrastructure, Land and Environment policy board in November and is subject to its agreement.”

Comments on the proposed restrictions can still be submitted up until September 11. Full details can be found at: https://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/new-parking-laws.