Consultation Report
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Proposed coach parking on Millbank Response to consultation May 2015 Proposed coach parking on Millbank Response to consultation May 2015 Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................... 3 1 Background ....................................................................................................... 5 2 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 5 3 The consultation ............................................................................................... 7 4 Overview of consultation responses ................................................................. 8 5 Conclusion and next steps .............................................................................. 19 Appendix A – TfL response to issues commonly raised ........................................... 21 Appendix B – Copy of consultation letter .................................................................. 25 Appendix C – Leaflet distribution area ...................................................................... 26 Appendix D – List of stakeholders consulted ............................................................ 27 Executive Summary About the consultation: In March 2015, Transport for London (TfL) consulted on proposals for a new 158 metre coach parking bay on Millbank, close to Millbank Tower and Millbank Pier. The new coach parking would be next to the southbound (riverside) carriageway and would replace 13 pay-by-phone parking bays as well as a redundant bus stand and short stretches of single and double red lines. We received 210 responses to the consultation, including many from coach operators, drivers and their representatives. There was strong support from the coach industry for the principle of providing more coach parking, with many respondents saying the proposals would go some way to compensating for the parking lost to the East-West Cycle Superhighway, although many felt that more provision was needed. There were strong objections from some local landowners, who were concerned that the proposals would negatively affect the visual environment, public realm, access to the river, parking availability and general conditions for pedestrians. There were also concerns raised about the potential for conflict between coaches and cyclists. Conclusion and next steps: Permanent arrangements for coaches on Millbank: Having considered the issues raised in the consultation, we have reconsidered our plans for permanent coach parking at this location. Our permanent arrangements will therefore be to: 1. Formally permanently convert the bus stand opposite Thorney Street to four hour coach parking, and extend this new coach parking bay from 19 metres to 30 metres. 2. Extend the existing coach parking bay next to Millbank Pier from 39 metres to 45 metres. In total, this will provide an additional 36 metres of dedicated coach parking. These coach bays will be operated by Westminster City Council and will have a maximum stay of four hours. They will be installed with parking sensors to detect availability. The revised arrangements would mean no permanent changes to the existing pay-by-phone parking at this location. Temporary coach parking on Millbank in spring/summer 2015: To support the coach industry during construction of the East-West Cycle Superhighway, there is a short-term need to provide temporary additional coach parking as quickly as possible within reasonable distance of Victoria Embankment. We therefore intend to 3 introduce our proposed coach parking temporarily from late May until late September 2015. The relevant pay-by-phone parking bays will be suspended and coaches allowed to park there for this period. We have arranged for the temporary coach parking to be available on Millbank before bays on Victoria Embankment are suspended for construction of the East-West Cycle Superhighway. From late September 2015 we will introduce the permanent coach parking arrangements on Millbank and reinstate the 13 pay by phone parking bays. Westminster City Council recently consulted on proposals to provide an additional four pay by phone and two shared-use parking bays in the local area. Other permanent coach parking: We will continue to work closely with the coach industry to identify and introduce additional permanent coach parking over the course of spring and summer 2015 to offset the provision lost to the East-West Cycle Superhighway. About this document: This document explains the processes, responses and outcomes of this consultation. Appendix A contains TfL’s responses to issues commonly raised. 4 1 Background In February 2015 Transport for London (TfL) announced it would go ahead with its proposals for the East-West Cycle Superhighway – a segregated cycle route which would mean changes to the road layout on Victoria Embankment, including a reduction in the available coach parking. TfL has been working with Westminster City Council to identify alternative locations for coach parking displaced by the East-West Cycle Superhighway. One option identified was to replace an existing stretch of pay & display car parking on Millbank with a coach bay. TfL consulted local properties and stakeholders on the proposals in March 2015. 2 Introduction Transport for London (TfL) proposed to introduce a new 158 metre coach parking bay on Millbank, close to Millbank Tower and Millbank Pier. The new coach parking would be next to the southbound (riverside) carriageway and would replace: • 13 pay & display parking bays (79.5 metres in total) • One 3.8 metre stretch of double red line • One 16.8 metre stretch of single red line • One 19.2 metre bus stand (in which no formal activity currently takes place) • Two existing coach parking bays (39.3 metres in total) The consultation explained that TfL was working with Westminster City Council to relocate some of the pay & display parking bays to nearby side roads and to confirm hours of operation of coach parking. The new coach parking would replace some of the existing coach parking on Victoria Embankment, which will be removed as part of the East-West Cycle Superhighway. We said we would look to make the changes in May 2015. 2.1 Location map 5 2.2 Diagram of proposed scheme 6 3 The consultation Consultation on the proposals ran from Friday 27 March to Friday 24 April 2015. It ran in parallel to TfL’s formal advertisement of intent to change the relevant traffic orders to reflect the proposals. The potential outcomes of the consultation were: • We decide the consultation raises no issues that should prevent us from proceeding with the scheme as originally planned • We modify the scheme in response to issues raised in consultation • We abandon the scheme as a result of issues raised in the consultation The objectives of the consultation were: • To give stakeholders and the public easily-understandable information about the proposals and allow them to respond • To understand the level of support or opposition towards the proposals • To understand any issues that might affect the proposals of which we were not previously aware • To understand concerns and objections • To allow respondents to make suggestions 3.1 Who we consulted The consultation intended to seek the views of a range of different groups potentially affected by or interested in the proposals. Those we consulted included: • Local residents and businesses • Local stakeholders, including Westminster City Council, local politicians and local interest groups • Users of the existing parking and coach parking facilities • Coach industry bodies and individual operators • Other road user groups (such as cyclists) • River operators A list of the stakeholders we consulted is shown in Appendix D. A summary of their responses is given in Section 4.4. 7 3.2 Consultation material, distribution and publicity We sent a letter and map describing the proposals to 800 addresses in the vicinity of the proposed coach bay. A copy of this letter is shown in Appendix B and a map of the distribution area can be found in Appendix C. The letter was also emailed to 231 stakeholder contacts. A list of the groups consulted is shown as Appendix D. The consultation invited participants to comment on the proposed changes. There were no closed questions. Participants were invited to respond in the following ways: • Online survey at consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/millbank-coach • Emailing [email protected] • Post People were also invited to view the relevant traffic order documentation at TfL’s and Westminster City Council’s offices. 4 Overview of consultation responses 4.1 About the responses We received 210 responses to consultation. 187 were submitted online and 23 were received by email. 75 were from stakeholder groups and 135 were from members of the public (including coach drivers responding in a personal capacity). Please see section 4.4 for more information about stakeholder responses. Table 1: Consultation responses by respondent Respondent Number Coach and tour operators and their 70 representatives Local venues / developers 3 Cycle groups 1 River service operators 1 Members of the public (including coach drivers responding in a 135 personal capacity Postcode analysis: Of 194 respondents who supplied a postcode, only 7 were from the local SW1 area. The remainder were spread across London and the UK (as well as two from Germany). 8 4.2 Support level and issues raised in overall responses We analysed comments received