Star date: 1st May 2015

`WILFUL OBSTRUCTION' OF PARKING OUTSIDE OWN HOUSE ON MOORINGS ESTATE

Greater Manchester Police officers booked a Boothstown resident for `wilful obstruction' – parking his own vehicle outside his own house - as the Moorings Estate war for safety against Countryside Properties took a new turn.

For weeks residents have battled the developer, which is bringing in massive lorries of construction deliveries that have been blocking roads and mounting pavements as kids walk to school. No traffic tickets have been issued to Countryside or its contractors. A neighbour has branded the police action an "absolute disgrace".

Full details here...

Last week, residents on the Moorings Estate in Boothstown blocked the road in protest at dirt, dust, noise and massive articulated lorries mounting kerbs en route to a new Countryside Properties development off Highclove Lane. Parents are fearing for their children's safety during the daily walk to and from school (see previous Salford Star article – click here).

Officers from Greater Manchester Police have been in attendance as the traffic chaos continues, and councillors and local MP Barbara Keeley get involved. But on Wednesday this week things took a bizarre turn when one resident was booked for `wilful obstruction' (or "willfull obstruction" according to the ticket) for parking his own vehicle outside his own house, as one of the huge Countryside-bound lorries tried to negotiate the narrow roads.
 
"I received a knock at the door and was greeted by a very pleasant PCSO who asked to me to move my van which I did" recalls Bob Clarke "I also explained that I would put it back after as I had nowhere else to put it. Thirty minutes later I had another knock at the door and was greeted by two GMP officers, who asked if the van parked outside my house was mine. I answered that it was. I was then told I was wilfully obstructing the highway.

"I was told I had no reason to be parked there, and that I deliberately parked it there so traffic could not get passed" he adds "As my neighbours will testify, my van has been there for 15 years and I live at that address. At no point was I asked to move the van and no point did I refuse. I was then booked for wilful obstruction of the highway."

The ticket angered Moorings Estate residents even more, as they have documented numerous incidents of Countryside Properties contactors' vehicles mounting pavements and other breaches of traffic regulations. Their demands are that lories keep away from the estate during the hours when children are going to and from school.

"What we are saying here is that Countryside can send all sorts of traffic down the street and we have to move and cannot park outside our own homes - the site opens at 7am and in summer could stay open past 6:30pm, so we have to park on the moon" says Bob "This cannot be right. We have reported numerous occasions of HGVs mounting the pavement. The police told us that this is not an offence. The offence is HA 1835 section 72 and RTA 1988 section 34 yet no action is taken. This situation is truly appalling."

The police action has also been branded an "absolute disgrace" by Charlotte Cooper of the Moorings Estate Residents Society...

"The Council has got to get to grips with this intolerable situation now and support the residents of this city who are up against a developer who pays no regard whatsoever to the community in which they are developing, or to planning conditions that they jointly agreed with the Council" she says "On this day there was a huge vehicle coming down our narrow residential street during the time our children were walking to school. Appallingly, GMP have been down and carried out enforcement action against residents for parking outside their own homes. I now ask that an urgent meeting is arranged with senior representation from the Council and GMP, our ward councillors and our MP."

Salford Council has come under fire for allowing the development in the first place and admitting that it cannot enforce its own planning conditions. A letter to residents from a senior planning officer states: "It is clear from photographs that I have been provided with that the development has not been operating in the way prescribed" but "there are difficulties around enforcement"...

Greater Manchester Police didn't seem to have a problem with `enforcement' against a resident parking outside his own house. When asked for a statement about the ticket GMP merely confirmed "On 29 April 2015, police issued a parking ticket to one resident on Godmond Hall Drive, Boothstown, Salford, for obstructing a highway."