To receive petitions on traffic management matters submitted in accordance with the Sub-Committee’s Terms of Reference.

(a)      Petition – Tuns Hill Cottages Change of Parking Restrictions

The Sub-Committee received a report on the receipt of a petition that had been received requesting that the parking spaces on Tuns Hill Cottages be changed to only allow resident permit parking for those living in the street but, allowing those residents to park within the 14R zone also, and to increase the number and size of spaces available for their vehicles on the street. 

Officers had considered the requests and had recommended that the request be considered withing the next Waiting Restriction Review programme.

The report explained that the petition had been submitted on 18 February 2025 and had contained indications for support from eight households.  Further formal wording (set out below) had been provided to the Council on 25 February 2025.  At the time of writing the report officers did not have details of the final the number of signatories, however a full list of 25 signatories from 20 households supporting the petition was provided prior to the meeting. The full petition read as follows:

“We’d like Tuns Hill Cottages parking spaces to be resident only and increase the space available for our cars on the street”

“Why the petition?

Parking in Tuns Hill Cottages is problematic! Not only are there only 15 spaces (at a squeeze) for the 30 households present, but additional space in surrounding roads is limited because Tuns Hill Cottages is located at the end of the parking zone, sharing the border to Wokingham District. Some households also have more than one vehicle, further adding to the problems.

Poorly parked cars (e.g. not utilising the full available space of the bays) further significantly reduces the available spaces in each instance, often forcing vehicles to be parked overhanging the undersized marked bays.

Additionally, non-resident parking permit holders utilising the same permit zone (14R), are permitted to leave their vehicles in the residents’ parking bays whilst going about their business (making school runs, catching the No 17 bus into the town centre, using local facilities, etc.), or simply using the spaces if they live in neighbouring roads and have been issued with 14R permits (most noticeably residents of Church Road).

There has also been a large increase in illegally parked vehicles since the opening of “The Good Brothers” café on Wokingham Road where patrons occupy residents’ spaces or park on double yellow lines multiple times daily.

What are we asking for?

1)    Reallocate ALL spaces within the road boundary for Tuns Hill Cottages residents only. The two (or four tight) spaces at the entry to Tuns Hill Cottages to be reallocated to residents only. Customers accessing the businesses on Wokingham Road still have ample parking along Wokingham Road and the private car park to the rear of the businesses.

2)    Extend length of existing bays to allow medium – larger cars to park. Extend the three smallest parking bays to allow medium to larger size cars to park comfortably and possibly facilitate additional space for a motorcycle. (The size or the largest bay is confined by physical factors.)

3)    Dual Permit Zone for Tuns Hill Cottages. Tuns Hill Cottages to have its own permit zone, issued only to residents of the road, and retain the current 14R zone to allow for overflow and visitors. Visitors’ scratch card permits to be dual zone to facilitate tradespeople and visitors. Since the residents permit system has recently become paperless, making this change should be straightforward.”

The report explained that currently the restrictions for the two bays referred to above allowed up to two hours parking without a permit (no return within two hours) between the hours of 8.00am and 8.00pm, with permit holder only parking (Zone 14R) at all other times.

These ‘shared use’ restrictions used across the permit parking zone were intended to provide residents with a greater degree of parking flexibility for guests/visitors and tradespersons, without placing a reliance on their allocation of visitor parking permits.  Permit parking only restrictions required every parked vehicle to have a valid permit in place and such a change at this location would remove the shared use facility in this street and reduce this flexibility both for residents of Tuns Hill Cottages and those within the wider parking zone area.

The report stated that the change requested in the petition was appropriate for consideration as part of the Waiting Restrictions Review Programme.  However, resourcing and other workload priorities meant that officers could not currently confirm when the next programme would commence.  There was work on other programmes and other schemes outstanding and it was expected that there would be a further programme commencing in 2025.

At the invitation of the Chair the petition organisers, Kathleen Heath and Ciaran Browne, addressed the Sub-Committee on behalf of the petitioners via Mircosoft Teams.

Resolved –

(1)      That the report be noted;

(2)      That the requested change be captured in the next Waiting Restriction Review Programme;

(3)      That the lead petitioner be informed of the decision of the Sub-Committee following publication of the minutes;

(4)      That no public enquiry be held into the proposals.