Permit parking scheme extended in Sunderland to tackle commuter parking and improve road safety

New traffic restrictions are set to launch in the Barnes area to help stamp out commuter parking and improve road safety.
The parking scheme has been extended by Sunderland City CouncilThe parking scheme has been extended by Sunderland City Council
The parking scheme has been extended by Sunderland City Council

In recent months, Sunderland City Council has been consulting on a new community parking management scheme (CPMS) in the ward.

The CPMS ‘Royal Hospital Phase 4 amendment area’ follows petitions from residents and engagement with councillors and aims to reduce the amount of ‘indiscriminate’ and long-stay parking.

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Proposals include extending the existing permit parking scheme to more residential streets.

As part of the formal process for developing the new CPMS, affected residents were given a vote on whether they wanted the permit restrictions.

It was determined that the overall scheme had majority support from the streets proposed, apart from Colchester Terrace (South of Cleveland Road) which was removed.

Earlier this week (March 29), the council’s Planning and Highways (East) Committee were asked to consider two objections to the scheme – the final hurdle to the permit parking coming into effect.

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Both objections questioned the need for the CPMS, with one objector describing it as “a completely unnecessary scheme to take yet more money from the motorists in Sunderland.”

However, the planning committee agreed not to uphold the objections in line with a recommendation from council officers.

This will allow the scheme to progress to formal adoption including associated physical works and signage.

The council also plans to introduce additional parking restrictions, such as double yellow lines, to improve road safety at junctions on Cleveland Road and other problem areas.

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According to a committee report, the changes aim to tackle “indiscriminate parking at junctions” which “causes difficulty for all users with reduced visibility for pedestrian and vehicular traffic.”

Safety concerns have previously been raised about these issues, particularly at Cleveland Road, with a multi-car smash on the road in 2019 seeing one vehicle plough through a front garden wall.

Barnes councillor Antony Mullen spoke in support of the CPMS and junction protections at Monday’s virtual meeting.

He said: “One of the issues we have is that people are parking right up to, and in some cases, over the corner of the junctions and people driving onto Cleveland Road from the surrounding streets are having to pull out into the road to see what’s coming.

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“Often what’s coming is a car at 60 or 70mph so hopefully this will help to alleviate that problem.”

Council officers also confirmed that Cleveland Road and the Barnes area would be considered for the city council’s next programme of 20mph zones.

According to planning documents, the new CPMS areas will only restrict parking during two hours per day (Monday to Friday) between 10am-11am and 2pm-3pm.

Outside of these hours motorists are free to park without a permit.

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For more information on CPMS schemes , visit: www.sunderland.gov.uk/article/12214/Parking-permits-and-community-parking-management-schemes

Streets included in the CPMS ‘Royal Hospital Phase 4 amendment area’

Area One

Barnes View (west of Barnes Park Road / Ormonde Street) Mount Road (west of Barnes Park Road / Ormonde Street) Section of Cleveland Road Dunbar Street Colchester Terrace (North of Cleveland Road) Barnard Street The Westlands

Area 2

Mount Road (east of Barnes Park Road / Ormonde Street) Pendle Green Oaklands Terrace Mount Grove Chatsworth Crescent Chatsworth Street South Cranford Terrace