Decisions made about residents’ parking in Wonford

At the meeting of the Exeter Highways and Traffic Orders Committee on 12th July it was decided to approve a residents’ parking scheme for the area north of the Chestnut Avenue roundabout on Burnthouse Lane on both sides of Rifford Road. 

The only exception to this will be that part of Woodwater Lane to the south-east of Rifford Road, on the park side. 

The area to the south of the roundabout on both sides of Burnthouse Lane will not be part of a residents’ parking scheme, however there will be several places where double yellow lines will be introduced to tackle parking problems identified by residents.

These decisions were made based on the results of a consultation exercise that took place between 26 May and 17 June (following up on a preliminary consultation of a year earlier). 

A mail drop, which asked residents to indicate support or opposition to the scheme, was made to all of the 2,077 households in the Wonford area that were included in the proposals and responses were received from 458 of them, a return rate of 22.1%. However, north of Chestnut Avenue roundabout the return rate was 27.7% (216 replies from 779 households) whilst south of this there were only 242 replies from 1,298 households – a return rate of just 18.6%.

In the area to the north of the Chestnut Avenue roundabout which will be included in the residents’ parking zone, to be known as S7, 125 households (57.9%) were in favour of inclusion and 91 (42.1%) were against.  In the area to the south that will not get residents’ parking, 115 (47.5%) were in favour and 127 against (52.5%). 

In Woodwater Lane the vote was 5 for and 18 against, but most of the opposition came from households south-east of Rifford Road.  All the other streets to the north-west had majorities in favour and it was decided to include that part of Woodwater Lane that was surrounded by them in S7 in order to prevent it becoming a car park for those commuters excluded from nearby streets.

In the area around Shakespeare Road to the north-west of Burnthouse Lane, which has 349 households, the return rate was just 14.6%. 25 households indicated that they were in favour of residents’ parking and 26 against.  Overall, then, only 7.2% of households here voted for inclusion in the scheme – too low a level of support to justify bringing the whole area into a residents’ parking zone.

In the area to the south-east of Burnthouse Lane and including the part of the road south of the Chestnut Avenue roundabout, 86 households were in favour of residents’ parking and 90 against.  The majority of respondents from Chestnut Avenue, Laburnum Road, Hazel Road, Holly Road and Walnut Road opposed the scheme, with 8 for and 8 against in Hamilton Avenue. 

It is difficult to say when the decision to establish zone S7 will be implemented, but the work will begin soon. 

The Wonford area is unlikely to be considered again for additional residents’ parking for the next three years, but this could be done earlier if a sufficiently strong case were to be made for a review.

If you have any queries about any of this please contact your local county councillor.