Council / Lerwick parking study ordered by SIC after traffic warden calls
Councillor also wants permanent ‘smiley face’ signs in Brae
A STUDY into parking in Lerwick is set to be carried out after calls for the return of a traffic warden.
Members of Lerwick Community Council last week called for a warden to monitor “illegal” parking around the town.
Last Monday’s meeting heard from one resident who said the “parking around the toon now is the worst I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime”.
She said cars are “left everywhere”, while other issues such as vehicles wrongly using disabled bays or parking on double yellow lines were raised.
Roads manager Neil Hutcheson said SIC chief Maggie Sandison had asked his department to look at the issues raised and to do a study on it.
“That will probably be getting presented to councillors sometime next year,” Hutcheson told today’s (Wednesday) community safety and resilience board meeting.
That came after Lerwick South councillor Neil Pearson said the reinstatement of a traffic warden was a “great idea”.
The poor state of the Kames road – which is currently in the process of having concrete dug up and replaced – and speed limits around Brae were also raised at today’s meeting.
Temporary “smiley face” speed signs were installed at the roads into Brae as a way of curbing speeding while the Dales Lees road was closed to traffic.
With that road now open again, Hutcheson said it was likely the smiley face signs would need to move to other locations.
But North Mainland councillor Andrew Hall said Brae residents would like to see the smiley face signs into all three entries into the village “permanently”.
Hall said the road into Brae from the north was currently a 40mph limit, and he called for that to be reduced down to 30mph.
“It’s hard to see over the brow of the hill and the pavement is quite short,” he said.
He called for “one of the smiley face signs” to be moved there.
Continuing on to talk about the Lang Kames, Hall said it would be “interesting to know who the project manager is and understand the reasoning for filling it with concrete knowing they would have to re-tar it.”
He added that people were concerned about the state of the white lines on the road, and asked if the SIC would have to re-paint them.
“It’s the contractor’s job to repair lines if they have damaged the lines,” Hutcheson replied.
“They might take us on to do that, but they would have to be covering the costs.”
With smiley face signs on the table, Pearson asked for them to be installed in Lerwick’s King Harald Street – saying that street “would benefit from it”.
He said there was a “huge amount of unrest in the community to do with traffic calming measures”, particularly in relation to King Harald Street.
Smiley face signs would be a “less disruptive means” of slowing traffic down, he added.
While Hutcheson said there would be a waiting list for the signs, he said King Harald Street could be added to that.
In his presentation to members the council’s roads manager said the SIC would launch a safety campaign for tourists looking to drive in Shetland next year.
He said that while there had been more issues with tourists driving on the Scottish mainland, he said they had been aware of some incidents in Shetland too.
The campaign will see wristbands and transfers for steering wheels offered at car rental companies, which will remind drivers to drive on the left side of the road.
Another safety campaign will encourage Shetland drivers to wear their seatbelts when driving.
Hutcheson said there seemed to be an issue in the isles with people not buckling up beforehand.
And he said there had been a few fatal accidents over the years “where there was a strong possibility not wearing a seatbelt has been a contributory factor”.
In his presentation to members, Hutcheson also said a 20mph limit was set to be introduced in Leebitton, in Sandwick.
Concerns have been raised with the SIC about the number of tourists moving around there, he said, with “bus-loads of tourists” often waiting to go across to Mousa.
He said there had been a “few near misses” on the road, and that a traffic order was likely to go out before the end of the year.
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