A plea has been made for Southampton City Council to adopt the road next to the social club leading to what is apparently the authority’s own car park, near the model railway in Riverside Park.
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David Hutchings, secretary of the Friends of Riverside Park group, put the case at an annual hearing of the city’s ancient Court Leet on Tuesday (Oct 3).
He said that the adopted road runs between 78A Manor Farm Road and Bitterne Park Social Club.
He added that the car park at the end of the short stretch of road is owned by the council, so the authority is a ‘private frontager’.
Reasons for the plea were threefold:
The road
Firstly, Hutchings noted that there are huge potholes, which he said are a danger to disabled people, cylists and others.
Secondly he suggested that if it were adopted then the council would be able to impose parking restrictions on what is currently an ‘un-regulatable’ street.
And finally he said that emergency access to the nearby section of the park would be much improved – especially in the light of Saturday’s incident which saw a large emergency response using Woodmill as the access point.
The car park
But, he stressed: “In no way do we want to infringe on anyone’s rights, in any way – legally or otherwise - but we would like you to consider adopting this short section of road”.
He said that a conversation with the Heritage lottery fund had suggested that “they would not be averse, if this road were to become a public highway, to put the initial funding in”.
More car park!