UP-DATE: Jewellery Quarter Controlled Parking Zone From the Director for Highways & Resilience to Cllr. K. Hartley 16/9/11

With respect to the Jewellery Quarter parking I think it is regrettable that the protracted completion of the necessary signing and marking works being undertaken by Transportation Projects causes Highways (in the form of our Civil Parking Enforcement Team) such difficulties in enforcing and managing parking on the area.

In addition to the loss of revenue being incurred by my service, the reputational damage to the City Council in having to continually defend and explain the delay I believe to be unacceptable and have made the appropriate representations with the responsible Transportation officers to that effect.

I understand the current deadline for completion of works (which will be subsequently followed by the legal sealing of the TRO) will be next week. After sealing we will be then able to commence effective enforcement rather than the token gesture we have felt necessary to employ to retain some control in the area i.e. the presence of a Civil Enforcement Officer on the street as a deterrent to errant drivers.

I will let you know when everything is up and running.

Regards

John Blakemore Director, Highways & Resilience Birmingham City Council 1 Lancaster Circus Queensway Birmingham B4 7DQ

Up-date by telephone, Thursday 6 October 2011

• The problems He in the poor performance of the contractors employed by the BCC Transportation Dept. to manufacture and install the signs and road markings. Until all the signs and markings are accurate, the Traffic Regulation Orders cannot be "sealed" and the BCC Highways Dept. cannot arrange for their Parking Wardens to enforce the new arrangements.

• John Blakemore has ordered an inspection which is taking place today and tomorrow to ascertain whether the signs are now accurate. If everything is o.k., BCC can apply to activate the TRO's. This means that Parking Wardens will be able to enforce them from 24 October at the latest and Parking Permits will be up-and-running.

• Residents who have bought Parking Permits are concerned that they have had them for months now and they have not been able to use them officially. The Highways Dept. will take this into account when implementing the renewal dates.

• Clearly, the BCC Highways Dept. has some issues with the contractor's performance and how the BCC Transportation Dept. monitored it. For instance, their merely sticking black tape in a cross on the signs instead of indicating clearly that the CPZ was not yet in force. We'll leave them to sort this out.

• The Highways Dept. has also been a victim of this mess, as they have lost on-street parking revenue. Non-the-less, the Highways Director offers BCC's apologies for the confusion and anger it has caused.