Tadley's parking issues likely to result in accident

Michael Leadbetter, of Priors Road, told councillors at the finance and general purposes meeting that the number of vehicles parked on footpaths in his road was “getting crazy” in the evenings, and there were similar situations all over town.
“I’m having trouble parking in my own street – it’s getting silly,” said Mr Leadbetter.
“What’s going to happen is that a little kid will come running across the road to get to the green and someone driving down will hit them – it’s an accident waiting to happen,” he said, adding that many of the town’s garages were unusable because they were falling apart.
The meeting was told that Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council had set aside a sum of around £250,000 for parking improvements across the borough in 2014/15, but Tadley was positioned way down on a long list of scheduled works.
Clare Ballard (Ind, Tadley South) said: “We see issues for ourselves in Priors Road, and I was horrified to see that it was so far down on the list.”
Jo Slimin (Lib Dem, Tadley Central) said that it had taken a 10-year battle to get the borough council to make parking improvements on Stephens Road in the town, while John Moss, (Ind, Tadley East), added that emergency vehicles such as fire engines, would have problems accessing the road, owing to the number of parked cars.
After the meeting, Mr Leadbetter was critical of the priority listings of scheduled parking improvement works, which favoured areas in Basingstoke, adding that the parking problems in Priors Road were creating friction and animosity between neighbours. “Priors Road is on the list of proposed works (position 166), but not in this financial year,” he said.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Parking and Access programme has set aside funding for the next four years to improve parking across the borough, including £257,000 planned for this year, £279,000 for next, and £278,000 for each of 2016/17 and 2017/18.
A further £20,000 for each of the four financial years from 2014 to 2018 – a total £80,000 – has been earmarked for parking solutions.
The top seven priority roads listed are in Basingstoke, with the eighth listed as Deanswood Road, Tadley. Ninth is in Whitchurch, with the next 24 in Basingstoke. Priors Road is at position 166.
It was decided at the meeting to raise the matter with Tadley’s county and borough councillors.