We now have the occasional police presence around the town in an attempt to dissuade the worst of the parking and traffic offenders from continuing their anti-social behaviour. However, clearly the law needs to be more visible as the two photographs here show.
The Range Rover (right) was snapped in East Street, a one way street. The vehicle was facing the wrong way, parked on a double yellow line and obstructing the pavement, but doubtless got away with it.
The second example (above) is, if anything, even more extreme. East Street is again the victim, with the entrance to the street being blocked by the delivery lorry. Not content with that, the driver has stopped in the middle of the street, forcing any other vehicle that needs to get past, to take to the pavement on the opposite side.
The total disregard of some drivers around Rye for anyone except themselves is just staggering. This paper regularly has complaints and photographs sent in of vehicles causing problems by behaviour that is not just inconsiderate but is stupid and unthinking.
For example, buses on several occasions have been held up on the sharp corner of Tower Street and Landgate by vans or cars parked on a double yellow line and this has rapidly caused a traffic jam right down Cinque Ports Street. On other occasions an emergency vehicle couldn't get into Church Square and a rubbish lorry couldn't clear rubbish from Conduit Hill, in both cases because of illegally parked cars. Lion Street is another “hot spot”. Vans delivering into the High Street frequently use it and often either park on the pavement or drive with two wheels on the pavement. Rye News has records of shop blinds being damaged and, in one case, a delivery van parking so close to a building that the resident couldn’t get out of his front door.
Surely this can’t be allowed to continue. At some time in the future we will have Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE), in other words traffic wardens, and this will hopefully provide at least part of the solution. However, there needs to be a more general traffic policy in the town. For instance: is the current traffic flow pattern the best arrangement? Could cars be discouraged from using the High Street by, say, a congestion charge, as operated in other areas (I believe Durham, which has had not dissimilar problems to Rye in the past, operates this with considerable success)? And how about shared space where both pedestrians and vehicles have the same rights? Could car parking around the fringes of the town be better signposted, extended or improved?
The problems caused by the lorry in the picture above cannot always be blamed on the delivery drivers. The shopkeepers and business owners in the High Street could certainly do more to help. Deliveries could be made either at the beginning or end of the day when the street is less busy; delivery companies could be warned than vans and lorries over a certain size would be unsuitable because of restricted room; there is a loading bay in the middle of the High Street and a simple and removable obstruction placed in it would keep it clear of cars and available for its proper purpose of providing room for deliveries.
Is it not time some of these issues were discussed seriously by our town council? Of course it does not have the powers to introduce major measures itself – I imagine the highways department of East Sussex County Council would be the final arbiter of policy in this instance, but is now not the time to be deciding what measures are appropriate so that arguments can start to be made to the relevant authorities, especially as all these things take time (the introduction of CPE is expected to take 18 months to two years to accomplish)? Some of the measures mentioned above have been suggested in the Neighbourhood Plan, but this is not the primary job of the plan and, in any case, who knows when the town will finally get to vote on it (it has to be approved by a local referendum before it can take effect). Before that, it has to be agreed with Rother, but the date when this might happen appears to be going back.
All these problems can be solved, but first there has to be the will to tackle them
Photos from Rye News readers
