Park strife as petition is ignored

THE organiser of a petition against new parking restrictions in Uppermill has hit out at the council who he says refused to consider over 750 signatures.

Business owner Nick Watt claims councillors on the Traffic Regulation Order Panel (TRO) said they would not take into account the list until the next petitioners’ meeting on March 3, next year.

Despite this, the decision was made to pass the proposal to limit parking to two hours on village car parks and three hours on the Saddleworth Museum car park.

Mr Watts was upset he was not given a chance to speak at the meeting where the decision was made.

He said: “I am disappointed that without any good reason the TRO Panel have ignored the common sense pleas of Kashif Ali, Councillor Ken Hulme and myself to simply defer their decision until they have had time perform a more reasonable consultation.

He said: “I’m even more disappointed that having followed Oldham Council’s advice to the letter about how to go about this, they have then used their own bureaucracy to ignore over 750 voices of the public.”

The restrictions have prompted a split in opinion among business owners in the village, with some supporting the move that would leave only the Saddleworth pool car park without a time limit.

Councillors argued that the restrictions will increase the flow of custom coming in and out of the village for local businesses.

Angry Nick said: “Whatever your point of view on the parking restrictions themselves, I’m sure you’d have to agree that the TRO Panel’s procedure here is quite simply bureaucracy gone mad.”