CAMPAIGNERS and councillors for the Green Party in Southend have called out the council’s approach to transport and parking as “piecemeal and patchwork”.
Focused on issues of road safety, parking conflicts and poor public transport in Chalkwell, the Greens say a comprehensive transport review for the entire city is needed to improve sustainable travel.
The leader of Southend Council has hit back at the claims and pointed to a £13 million investment into Southend’s roads in the past year alone.
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Kay Mitchell, the Green Party’s Chalkwell candidate for next year’s local elections, said she is regularly contacted by residents frustrated by unsafe junctions, inconsiderate parking and unreliable bus routes.
“Residents tell me every week about parking conflicts, dangerous junctions and buses that simply don’t turn up,” she said.
“The council’s patchwork of parking schemes and altered routes just shifts the problem, without solving the root causes.”
The Greens described the approach as “piecemeal” and said it is failing residents, with people across Chalkwell and beyond reporting growing concerns.
Stuart Allen, Green councillor for Leigh, said: “We recognise that some streets doneed residents’ permit parking, but the current approach is disjointed and short-sighted.
“Without a joined-up transport strategy that looks at public transport, active travel and parking together, Southend will stay stuck in gridlock.”
Campaigners are now planning to ask a question at the next full council meeting to call for a comprehensive transport review, which would update the existing transport plan.
However, Daniel Cowan, Labour leader of Southend Council, has said the Green Party has repeatedly failed to raise the issues they are reporting with the administration and did not vote for the council’s transport plan when it was presented in the council’s most recent budget.
He said: “This administration is taking action by updating the Local Transport Plan, introducing sensible new policies for parking schemes, increasing bus routes, and investing in active travel - all which Green Party councillors failed to vote for at this year's budget setting.
"The Green Party are behaving duplicitously as they do not raise these issues with us directly to resolve.
“We think residents deserve better and that's why we've put £13m into our roads this year and £2.5m into supporting our bus network.”
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