Councillor Steve Wright

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Holyrood Ward, Bury MBC Learn more

Reporting Back: Heaton Park Parking Issues

by stevewright on 17 October, 2018

Earlier in the month your local councillors met with Heaton Park managers and representatives from Bury Council’s Highways team to look at some of the problems with parking in the residential areas around Heaton Park.

The concerns we raised were around the significant parking problems that residents can experience who live near to the park. The particular areas we raised were: St Margaret’s Road and Close, Middleton Road/Baguley Crescent, the Upper Wilton Street Area, the Milton Road area and Carver Avenue.

We identified different types of parking pressures:
– Very major events (Parklife, Bonfire Night) where a proper traffic management plan is put in place with parking restrictions, signage and stewarding.
– Other major events which are not big enough to warrant a traffic management plan (e.g. the charity ‘runs’). We also raised the Saturday morning Park Run which is now a very large weekly event.
– Busy days in the park (e.g. sunny weekend or bank holidays)
– Normal days in the park.

Things Heaton Park can and will do
We identified a number of things Heaton Park can do to make things easier:
– the ‘start point’ for Park Run has now been moved from the Hall to the Lakeside. This will hopefully reduce pressure on the northern side of the park and encourage runners to use the larger car parks off Sheepfoot Lane.
– Heaton Park are undertaking a new review of parking, to make sure they are making the best use of their current spaces and in particular thinking about what use is made of the overspill parking off Sheepfoot Lane.
– We urged the park to look at how it encourages more people to use public transport to get to the park and also to look at signage to the park from the Motorways to make sure that this is directing people to the larger car parks.
– The Park, in response to its own consultation group, is thinking how it can improve communications with nearby residents about upcoming events and event timing (e.g. a dedicated webpage, or using a social media tool).

Things Bury Council will look into:
In the St Margaret’s Road area there is a particular issue with the lack of parking around the junction with Polefield Road, with the extensive time-restricted parking bay which used to be well used for the (now closed) bank and post office. The Council is going to look at reducing the length of the bay by 16 metres to provide more residents parking, but still provide some short stay parking for the important shops and businesses that are there.

In the Upper Wilton Street area the Council will take forward the idea of having two short-stay spaces at the top of the road to help provide some sensible parking for the businesses (e.g. the sandwich shop) on Bury Old Road which would create some relief. They will also look at reproving the (faded) double yellows towards Bury Old Road, and also extending this down on the northern side to the current car park.

We are very conscious that this leaves some problems un-resolved – particularly Milton Road, St Margaret’s Close and Carver Avenue – and we are going to talk more to residents about your ideas on these roads. We have asked about the potential of residents’ parking schemes in all these areas but at the moment they are not meeting the Council’s criteria.

Hope this is helpful, please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions or comments at this stage.

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