Faversham Yellow Lines

Faversham Yellow Lines - please sign a new petition to prevent further damage

Dear All

You were kind enough, and you cared enough, to sign a petition last year against the painting of yellow lines through the historic heart of Faversham. Your efforts won some significant concessions, yet the lines were still painted through most of the beautiful centre of the town.

Faversham Town Council's Public Realm Committee is currently considering (page 14, item 4.4) the repainting of the frequently ignored and now fading yellow lines AND the painting of yellow lines around the Guildhall - Faversham's architectural centrepiece.

Such moves will set the town backwards, damaging its attraction to visitors and, as a consequence, its economic vitality. And they would simply look awful, especially in the vicinity of the recently installed plaque that honours the valour of Sir Philip Neame.

I encourage you to sign a new petition against such measures - it will only take a few seconds and, I hope, will avert further damage to Faversham's historic and much cherished town centre.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE NEW PETITION

Faversham Town Council will meet on Monday evening, 9th March 2015. Please sign now to demonstrate your concern.

Many thanks and best wishes

Tim

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Tim Stonor

Faversham resident

tstonor@gmail.com

Campaign update 6 - significant concessions announced!

Campaign update 5 - silver lining

Dear All

Despite the strong opposition of Faversham residents, visitors and international observers, it seems that Faversham, Swale and Kent councils are determined to press ahead with the scheme to paint yellow lines through Faversham's historic town centre.

I met on Wednesday evening with Brian Planner, Head of Service Delivery at Swale Borough Council and Laurence Young, Manager at the Faversham Enterprise Partnership. I used the meeting to express my concerns about both the design of the yellow lines scheme and the process by which it has come about.

Click here for notes from the meeting with Brian Planner & Laurence Young

The yellow lines plans clearly haven't been considered sufficiently in terms of the historic fabric of the town: its key buildings and landscaped surface of bricks and stones. The lines stop and start in places with inadequate regard to the existing landscape. The only drawing that was tabled at Wednesday's meeting was a plan that shows none of the important details that a more considered approach would have taken into consideration. There don't appear to be any other plans. I believe this is simply not good enough for such an important historic setting.

In a similar vein, the consultation process, however correct by the standards that are required, just failed to engage with local people. Sticking notices to lamp posts in the age of social media is like telling the time with a sundial. It might be one way of doing things but it isn't necessarily the best!

I remain of the view that an inadequate process has been played out - all the statutory boxes have been ticked by those concerned - and that Faversham will suffer as a result. Indeed, it's clear from the strength of objection to what now seems inevitable that the process that has been followed - by people who truly care about Faversham - just isn't good enough.

If there is a silver lining (and do please forgive the pun) it is that Middle Row will not be painted. Good sense has prevailed there, where the town centre's oldest road stones were at risk of overpainting. The view has been taken that the road is so narrow that no one will choose to park there.

I urged Brian Planner and Laurence Young to follow a similar logic in front of the Guildhall - the postcard view of Faversham - where there is plenty of space for traffic to flow even if someone parks incorrectly. And so on.

Encouragement must also come from the fact the paint that will be used is less durable than conventional paint. It will be a spray paint rather than a heat bonded thermoplastic. It will fade faster and, while one view might be that the council will therefore need to repaint it more often, my hope is that the ever-changing regulatory context will mean that it will be more possible in six or 12 months' time for those concerned to propose a solution without the need to re-paint any lines.

So what does it mean for this campaign?

My intention is to keep the campaign running. Not from naive belief that we can stop the lines being painted - the situation is apparently much too obfuscated for better sense to shine through - but instead from determination that the lines should be scrubbed off at the earliest opportunity. The Yellow Lines campaign will therefore become a campaign to remove the self-inflicted blemish that now seems likely to appear in the next few weeks.

Thank you again for your support to date: for all the petition signatures and for the many supportive comment too. I believe Kent, Swale and Faversham councils are about to embarrass themselves in the international spotlight, to the consternation of so much of the local community. With continued effort and some fresh thinking - enabled by regulatory changes that will make it easier to permit line-free solutions - the scrubbing brushes might be sent in soon to restore the rare, paint-free Faversham that so many of us cherish.

Best wishes

Tim

Tim Stonor
46 Tanners Street, Faversham
tstonor@gmail.com

Campaign update 4 - progress!

Dear All

I’m pleased to say that Swale Borough Council has been in contact to suggest a meeting to discuss the alternative proposals that this campaign has proposed. This is an important step, giving us the opportunity to present our case in detail.

This news came during a busy evening yesterday, just before I spoke at Faversham Town Council and asked the question below.

We also received backing yesterday from Sir Terry Farrell, widely acknowledged as the UK’s leading architect-planner and Sunand Prasad, Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, adding to the list of supporters that now numbers over 1,400.

The meeting with Swale is likely to be in two weeks’ time and I have been reassured that no yellow line painting will take place in this time. In fact I hope it never will and the more I speak to the people involved in the process to date the more I understand that they don’t want the yellow lines either. The lines have been offered in the manner of a “bitter pill”. We’re saying there’s an alternative treatment to a possible mis-diagnosis!

Continuing best wishes

Tim

Tim Stonor
46 Tanners Street, Faversham
tstonor@gmail.com
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Is Faversham Town Council aware:

- that alternatives to the proposed yellow line marking of this historic town centre are available

- that these would use natural stone and brick

- that they would achieve the same parking outcomes

- are recommended by national transport guidance

- are used in other historic centres

- would not, of necessity, cost more

- and could achieve a much less damaging visual impact

- but were unknown to many of the people involved in taking decisions on the subject to date, including the Chair of the Faversham Traders Association

and will the Council share with me the analysis it says it has done of the options because over 1,400 people here and throughout the world - including eminent figures in architecture, urban design and transport planning - believe that a great mistake has been made that will ultimately damage the heritage and economy of this great town?

Confirmation of Town Council meeting *tomorrow* 7th May

Further to my last message (below) I want to point out that www.faversham.org is incorrect in saying that the Town Council meeting is tonight, 6th May. I’ve had an email from Jackie Westlake, Town Clerk, this morning confirming tomorrow, 7th May as the date - it changed from this evening following a request from the Mayor because several members are at another meeting this evening

Tim

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Dear All

We have had a good week of newspaper and BBC Radio coverage as well as a useful meeting with the Chair of the Faversham Traders Association. The petition now has over 1,200 signatures.

Faversham Town Council is meeting tomorrow in the Guildhall, Market Place, Faversham at 7pm. I will be there to ask a question at the beginning of the meeting. Do join me if you can.

Best wishes

Tim

tstonor@gmail.com

Update - Town Council Meeting tomorrow, 8th May

Dear All

We have had a good week of newspaper and BBC Radio coverage as well as a useful meeting with the Chair of the Faversham Traders Association. The petition now has over 1,200 signatures.

Faversham Town Council is meeting tomorrow in the Guildhall, Market Place, Faversham at 7pm. I will be there to ask a question at the beginning of the meeting. Do join me if you can.

Best wishes

Tim

tstonor@gmail.com

Campaign Posters festoon Faversham shopfronts

A short update. For those of you who haven't walked through Faversham town centre lately you might like to see the visual impact that this campaign is having. Many shopfronts are displaying the Campaign Poster against the yellow lines, including many of the very businesses that the lines are supposed to help.

Click here to see pictures of the posters in Faversham shopfronts

We are hoping to reach 1,000 signatures by the end of the weekend. Please forward this email to anyone you think might help, asking them to...

Click here and sign the petition

Best wishes to all

Tim

46 Tanners Street, Faversham

Campaign update 3

Dear All

In the last week the campaign has become more visible with the launch of a Poster and a Paper Petition. As a result, the number of signatures has soared from 300 to well over 700...and rising. The next milestone is 1,000!

Please help us reach this by continuing to spread the word and asking people to sign up.

Click here for the online petition

or

Print your own petition and contact me to arrange a pickup.

Coverage in the Faversham News was also good with an article, letters of support from readers and links to our petition and social media.

Having previously written to Faversham Town Council and Swale Borough Council the next step has been to take the campaign to Kent County Council, which has the power to overturn the decision to paint the yellow lines and think again. On Thursday I wrote to Councillor David Brazier at KCC and received a swift reply to say that he would be looking into the situation.

Let's see what next week brings.

In the meantime, Happy Easter to everyone and thanks again for your support

Tim

Tim Stonor
46 Tanners Street, Faversham

Campaign update 2

Dear All

Thank you so much for supporting the campaign against the yellow lines in Faversham. Nearly 200 people have signed so far and the number grows by the hour.

The vast majority of signatures are from Faversham but we have also had support from Cyprus, the USA and Australia. Ours is a concern felt globally! Many of you have also left useful comments - all of which builds the case in favour of a more considered approach to parking in the town centre.

Having consulted Faversham Town Council and Swale Borough Council, our next step is to lobby Kent County Council.

Our case is that the full range of solutions hasn't been considered by "the powers that be". There are other approaches that can be taken that would not cause the visual damage that yellow lines will. We believe that visual damage will create economic harm.

Please continue to share the petition with friends and colleagues:

http://www.petitions24.com/faversham_yellow_lines

With strength in numbers - and further positive coverage in the press - we may just be able to encourage a rethink.

Best wishes

Tim Stonor, 46 Tanners Street, Faversham

PS Don't hesitate to contact me if you have further thoughts on the campaign:

tstonor@gmail.com

Campaign update 1

Dear campaign supporters

Thank you for signing the petition against the painting of yellow lines throughout Faversham town centre! Are you able to take one more step and share this campaign within your network of friends and colleagues? I hope so and, to help explain our aims, I've written a brief note below that you can paste into an email to people you think might support the campaign.

Best wishes

Tim
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It is difficult to put a value on the damage that Swale's proposals will cause. But in a town that relies on its historic beauty to draw visitors year-round, it is reasonable to assume that visual degradation will lead to economic harm.

Faversham town centre is a jewel. Its historic architecture of Grade 2 and Grade 2* buildings sit in a streetscape of granite setts and brick paviors. Remarkably, this streetscape is unmarked by road paint - there are no road markings anywhere.

Such an environment is the envy of many town centres throughout the UK. Road paint scars the urban landscape of too many other towns. Yellow and white lines detract from the beauty of such centres and send a clear signal: "these are highways for cars not places for people".

At a time when the UK's high streets and market squares are under threat from general economic pressures as well as out-of-town development, all places need to make the best of their natural assets - and Faversham's landscape of granite and brick is a significant asset.

It is therefore extremely worrying that Swale Borough Council should be proposing to paint single and double yellow lines, continuously from mid-way along Preston Street to the end of Court Street. Could anything be more municipal and less sympathetic to the town's character?

Faversham has a history of unexpected discoveries: the Jacob map of 1745 - found behind a cupboard in the Town Hall - or the true value of the town's original Magna Carta. This time round, Faversham's treasure is not kept out of sight but sits in full public view: the unpainted roads and pavements of high-quality granite and brick that grace the town centre. This is a landscape that, like Faversham itself, defies convention. It bucks the trend of town centres that have succumbed to the road markings that are much loved by transport departments nationwide.

Faversham's landscape is destined to be painted over with single and double yellow lines that will turn the tables for the town's unique and enviable townscape. It is difficult to put a value on the damage that Swale's proposals will cause. But in a town that relies on its historic beauty to draw visitors year-round, it is reasonable to assume that visual degradation will lead to economic harm.

The Faversham Yellow Lines campaign believes that the proposals to paint road markings throughout the town centre should be withdrawn and that an alternative, landscape design-led approach should be pursued. The solution we propose exists elsewhere in Faversham already: on Napleton Road and Tanners Street, where different coloured paviors are used in combination with clear but discrete signage to show where people can park and where they can't.

If you share our views, then we would be grateful if you would sign a petition to Swale Borough Council at:

http://www.petitions24.com/faversham_yellow_lines

With enough support we may just be able to persuade Swale to think again.

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