June 2005

PC 331 Garnham

After joining Elmswell Police Station in January, taking up the post of Community Beat Police Officer for Elmswell, Woolpit, Onehouse, Buxhall, Harleston, Shelland and Great Finborough, I have tried to attend all Parish Council Meetings. It has proven very difficult as I am unable to work 24 hours a day and seven days a week in order to meet the needs of the public. However, I have attended two meetings at Onehouse and have received alarming reports about a lack of considerate parking in the village and on the Northfield Estate.

Particularly in Ash Road, it has been reported that residents are finding it increasingly difficult to enter and exit the road safely due to residents and visitors double parking. This is quite a narrow cul-de-sac and I have noticed that it would be almost impossible for a vehicle such as a fire engine or police van to gain easy access in this road. I have been asked to take positive action against residents and visitors inconsiderately parking in this area and to point out exactly the offences for which people can be issued a penalty ticket.

These are...............

•    Parking offside at night - ie parking facing the traffic

•    Unnecessary obstruction - ie parking on footpaths or preventing other road users from safely using the road by obstructing view or taking up too much of the road. Also parking on junctions, obscuring the view of other road users or making it difficult for them to manoeuvre in and out of a junction

•    Wilful obstruction - ie persistently blocking the road, preventing access or vision to other road users, blocking public footpaths and blocking driveways. Persistently parking at junctions

All these offences can be and will be dealt with by a fixed penalty ticket which will incur a cost of £30

•    Leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position - ie

parked so far across a road or on a bend on a main road and is likely to cause an accident.

This is a penalty of £60 and 3 points on a licence

Please take this advice as it is meant. It is purely advisory and to bring to everyone's attention the dangerous nature in which vehicles are being parked in the village of Onehouse.

If you have a driveway or garage en-bloc, please use it. It is easy to become apathetic to other road users - we all think we have a right to park outside our own house. This is not the case when roads are public highways and owned by every member of the public.

Suffolk Constabulary are working alongside the Parish Council to try and suggest long term solutions to parking congestion in the village of Onehouse and in the area of Northfield Estate. If you have any suggestions, please get in touch with the Clerk to the Parish Council.