Putting a petition together for double yellow lines

[Danny54]

Having spoken to a handful of people in my street about new double yellow lines recently painted, they, like me, are extremely unhappy about it. A couple of us suggested putting a petition together so I said I'd try and compose one, print it out, and then get as many people in the street to sign it. We might also try and get a local councillor involved to back us up. Anyway since I've never put a petition together, can anyone give me pointers? Can I find a template somewhere which gives me an idea of how to structure my words? I suppose it would start with something like " We the undersigned have put together a petition for..." or something like that? Dunno if this is even the right forum to be asking?

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

FWIW in my experience councils attach less weight to petitions than to a raft of individual letters.

 

The thought goes that people often just sign up to petitions without much thought but to sit down an invest the time in writing - the feelings must be strong!

 

Your post suggests that it is possible that the council did not consult on the traffic order required for this. Is there one. It is possible that the DYLs are unenforcable!

[Al27]

Yep, request the TRO from the council.

[Danny54]

Bernie, you've got a point there. I will suggest it to some residents here. Not sure how many will bother to write their own letter but it's worth a shot. Perhaps if people wrote their own letters AND if I did a petition, together, that might carry some more weight. I found out that one of my local shops near me which is actually situated right where the double yellows are, did actually receive notice. But as far as I can tell, no residents did, or at least, I don't recall getting anything and neither do one or two other people around here. I spoke to someone before the weekend from the highways department of my council and I said I wasn't aware of receiving any formal notice in advance of these lines being painted. He said you should normally get something, and I said never mind 'should', please find out if you DID. He was gonna call me back but hasn't done as yet. Al27, what does TRO stand for? Traffic Road Order?

[TheBogsDollocks]

Bernie is absolutely spot on, do not use the normal petition method.

 

What you can do is write a template letter pointing out why you are unhappy and include the street address at the top so that only the house number needs to be written. Then get each person to sign a template letter and put their house number.

 

Photocopy these as councils lose them.

 

You also should scrutinise the legislation below as authorities have to follow regulations 6 to 18 to enable the traffic order.

 

http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/legResults.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&Year=1996&number=2489&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&TYPE=QS&NavFrom=0&activeTextDocId=3046943&PageNumber=1&SortAlpha=0

 

 

You need to ask them for proof that a Notice of Proposal was published, that the statutory bodies were consulted including informing those living in the vicinity, that the draft order was made available for public inspection and that a Notice of Making was published. If necessary submit a FOI request and certainly raise your concern with local councillors.

[Al27]

Traffic Regulation Order

[Danny54]

Ok, thanks a lot.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

What you can do is write a template letter pointing out why you are unhappy and include the street address at the top so that only the house number needs to be written. Then get each person to sign a template letter and put their house number.

 

My council will treat this in much the same way as a petition I'm afraid.

[Danny54]

My council will treat this in much the same way as a petition I'm afraid.

 

Yeah, I was gonna say something similar. If a petition is no good, then it needs personalised individual letters rather than everyone signing one templated letter.

[TheBogsDollocks]

Yeah, I was gonna say something similar. If a petition is no good, then it needs personalised individual letters rather than everyone signing one templated letter.

 

I suppose different councils have different processes. I certainly know that this was a method used to object to planning applications and each letter was recorded individually where a petition was not.

 

It still could be the case that the lines have not been implemented in accordance with the law linked above. If not you can make an official complaint and if no satisfaction take it to the LGO.

[Jamberson]

I would suggest not taking quite such a confrontational approach with the council at this stage. Do you know why the yellow lines were installed and what the rationale was? That would be a good starting point from which to argue the case. It obviously costs the council time and money to install lines and I can't see they did this for any devious or self-serving reason.

 

If you go down the TRO route, it's likely one of two things will happen - either you get the documents you asked for, or you uncover a discrepancy, in which case they go back and correct whatever the error was, and the run the process through again. It doesn't get you anywhere.

 

I would try and find out why they identified that location, and on that basis, argue the case as to why the lines are unnecessary and problematic, in a rational way. At this point, weight of numbers becomes significant.

[TheBogsDollocks]

I would suggest not taking quite such a confrontational approach with the council at this stage. Do you know why the yellow lines were installed and what the rationale was? That would be a good starting point from which to argue the case. It obviously costs the council time and money to install lines and I can't see they did this for any devious or self-serving reason.

 

If you go down the TRO route, it's likely one of two things will happen - either you get the documents you asked for, or you uncover a discrepancy, in which case they go back and correct whatever the error was, and the run the process through again. It doesn't get you anywhere.

 

I would try and find out why they identified that location, and on that basis, argue the case as to why the lines are unnecessary and problematic, in a rational way. At this point, weight of numbers becomes significant.

 

LOL!......you big softie.....you are right though, save the ball breaker approach for if/when it is required.