Forum topic: PG ward forum: Plenty to discuss

Updates on issues raised at the Palmers Green ward January 2023 meeting

The notes below were made available at the May 2023 meeting and appear to have been drafted by council officers in response to requests from the ward councillors. They should be read in conjunction with the PGC report on the January meeting.

Plans for the next Palmers Green festival and what happened to prior year budget

The Palmers Green festival* was part of the borough wide "A Month of Sundays (AMOS) event" across the borough's town centres and Enfield based (Southgate) Icy Mango were procured to deliver the programme across all the events. Icy Mango worked closely with the Green Lanes Business Association to support their desire to deliver their shopping festival as part of the AMOS programme. Along with other national and local events, the Palmers Green Festival was called off as a mark of respect due to the death of the late Queen. Because of these extenuating circumstances, it would not be expected to withhold fees from any supplier involved as a lot of the preparation work was completed.

The Month of Sundays programme won't be continuing this year, but a Borough wide Festival of Industry won Arts Council Funding support and will be rolled out during 2023.

Begging on Green Lanes - referral to the Modern Slavery team

The Council recognise this is a problem borough-wide therefore the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Team are in discussions and liaising with the Modern Slavery Team and Police on how to best tackle this issue.

There is a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) in place borough-wide that includes intimidatory begging (begging that is perceived to be intimidating, aggressive or causing a nuisance, or pose a risk to their safety or others), therefore the ASB Team will ask the local Police to consider the use of PSPO where applicable or issue ASB Warnings for persons that are repeatedly begging. The ASB Team would request anyone who witnessed incidents of crime or ASB to please make a report to the Police on 101, online and 999 in an emergency. We would also encourage residents to sign up to OWL - Online Watch Link at www.OWL.co.uk or download the app on their smart device to receive regular ward updates about what is happening in their area and the Police i.e. crime prevention messages.

Cigarette ends on Green Lanes and how many fines have been issued

The total number of FPNs issued for dropped litter between January 2022 and January 2023 was 5,374.

With respect to your question regarding resources applied to fining, in addition to Council Waste Enforcement Officers we engage the services of a third-party contractor to support the Council in the investigation of waste offences. The current provider is Kingdom LA Support. LA Support Officers predominately focus on the issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNS) for dropped litter. They will regularly patrol the high footfall areas.

Double yellow lines Park Lane**/Green Lanes being ignored

Continuing with enforcement activity is the only intervention that can be offered at this stage. The report will be passed to the relevant team to see if any further targeted enforcement activity can be undertaken.

An arrangement of double yellow lines is the typical, and generally most appropriate, layout of parking controls to place at a junction. It can be seen as a benefit that loading is not prohibited by these markings, thus leaving space for genuine loading activity that does not conflict with the cycling facilities or traffic flow on the main road. Any driver blocking the dropped kerbs of a crossing point already commits an offence against which patrolling staff can take action.

Ideally the arrangement should keep these kerbsides clear of most other stationary vehicle usage. It should be noted, that it was a decision at national level that allows blue badge holders to park for up to three hours on yellow lines, with the judgement of a police officer required as to whether any particular example presents a more general offence. Similarly restricting camera-based enforcement of parking controls by local authorities was a decision taken at national level.

There are hundreds of junctions across the network that do not yet have any yellow lines. Since the Grenfell Tower disaster of 2017 the council's focus has been on those where we see routine obstruction to bin lorries, and where there is, thus, a serious risk that a fire engine could not gain access in an emergency. Typically, the obstructing factor is habitual, long-stay domestic parking; not short-stay 'fly parking' by those who are not venturing far from their unlawfully parked vehicle. Therefore, reduced visibility (with its implications for road safety) is no longer the factor we use to prioritise such sites. Rather we feel that in an urban context, drivers and other road users are adept at adjusting their motion to account for parked vehicles, for reduced visibility and for reduced road space. Accordingly, this does not always amount to a serious road safety concern.

Within our neighbourhood schemes, the cameras are used to encourage compliance with the 'No Motor Vehicle' restrictions. For the latter type of 'moving vehicle' offence - unlike parking offences - we are not so restricted by national rules on undertaking camera-based enforcement. This explains the difference between the two scenarios.

Cycling at speed on Green Lanes

Like all transport modes some people cycling may show less consideration than is appropriate. People cycling through this town centre environment should naturally slow their speeds, equally people walking should be also be aware of the existence of the cycling facility which is well marked. It is positive to note that we have not had any reports of collisions or near misses at this location since the route was opened some years ago. We do have an incident report form on the Let?s Talk platform and would encourage residents to report any incidents or near misses via this form:

There are no current plans to install signs telling cyclists to slow down here.

Loading bays on Green Lanes

There is no set procedure for requesting and approving loading bays. Requests submitted to can be looked at on an individual basis, where exact details of the locations and the loading demand are provided. Given that space for loading is often in competition with customer parking or domestic parking (flats above shops, etc.) the team seeks to be convinced that the loading bay will be important in improving the viability of the surrounding outlets, rather than merely improving the convenience of making deliveries from the perspective of the delivery driver.

The project work to introduce cycle lanes on Green Lanes may be too far in the past now for a review of loading facilities to still fall under the monitoring work associated with those changes. However, if the community believes such an exercise was committed to, I would be pleased to see any details on the topic.

Street gullies

Street Cleansing are now responsible for the Gully Cleansing contract on behalf of the Highways Service.

Prior to September 2020 the service had been outsourced to private contractors for a period of 10 years.

All residential streets in the borough should be visited within a two-year period however due to the previous lack of maintenance this is taking much longer than anticipated.

Main roads, or Priority Routes ,are on a schedule of once and in some cases twice annually, as the gullies here will fill much quicker due to the volume of traffic using the road

Once we have caught up and are on top of the schedule it will become much easier and quicker next time around, however as there are a total of 26,000 gullies across the borough, some more than once and the budget allows for only one vehicle and team, it will still be difficult to achieve the required results

Lakeside Road junction with Aldermans Hill, N13.

The raised footway (continuous footway) was put in late 2018/early 2019 as part of the first tranche of Quieter Neighbourhoods the council had started to introduce. The Traffic team doesn't recall revoking any of the double yellow lines in Lakeside, just re-marking the ones on Aldermans Hill to go across the junction.

Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) are being issued at this junction, however NSL will be instructed to make extra visits here. Any vehicles seen parked on the yellow line, footway or raised footway will be issued with a PCN.

Aksular building on Green Lanes

The LBE building control team visited the building and confirm the building is not in a dangerous structure and is boarded up. As such we do not have any powers to instruct the owner to carry out works to the building.

Motorcycles parking outside McDonald's in Lodge Drive, N13.

There is a loading bay on the footway outside this McDonald's which allows delivery drivers including the motorbikes to park. They should not however park outside of this footway parking bay or on the double yellow lines nearby.

NSL are aware of the bikes sometimes parking out of the bay or on the yellow lines and do issue Penalty Charge Notices however they will be asked to make extra visits to this location over the next few weeks.

Motor cycles on Fox Lane - regarding the issue of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) at the junction of Fox Lane and Green Lanes, N13 near the LTN restriction.

Any motorbikes entering Fox Lane from Green Lanes, N13 won't be issued with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) as their vehicle registration plate won't be visible (as the registration plates are only on the back). If they exit Fox Lane to Green Lanes tickets will be issued.

If the motorcyclists choose to drive along the pavement to avoid the camera unfortunately the Council has no power to enforce this, it would be a matter for the police.

Yellow line parking at top of Park Avenue - vehicles parking in Park Avenue, N13 junction with Green Lanes.

The yellow lines at this junction are regularly patrolled, in fact at least 12 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) were issued between the beginning of January and mid February.

Note added by Palmers Green Community

* The Palmers Green festival referred to in the notes was scheduled to be one of the Month of Sundays events held last summer in five of the borough's town centres; it was cancelled because of the death of the Queen. It was being organised by Enfield Council and the Green Lanes Business Association. It should not be confused with the Palmers Green Festivals that were held in Broomfield Park up until September 2019 and will return on 3rd September this year.

** This should read Park Avenue not Park Lane. This issue is referred to again later in the notes, with a different response!