It's Not Rocket Science

Great to see that Hamptons have finally responded to resident’s questions on social media about event parking, it only took them 5 days !

We don’t however, share their view that solving their parking isssues is “very difficult”, they’ve known about this potential issue since January 2021, over nine months ago !

A problem the council created

So going back to the orginal Marconi Club in Beehive Lane, the car park had 180 spaces. Yes thats right 180…nearly double the car park that Hamptons has, plus a huge amount of overflow parking on the 16 acres of sports pitches.

The developers then squeezed the replacement club and parking into a much smaller footprint, and despite the car park not being compliant with Essex County Council Parking Standards (short by 22 spaces), the council approved the plans anyway.

The Clarion Gate development also suffers from poor estate road design, with some road widths less than that required by regulations for emergency vehicle access. The council approved and signed off on those too !

But having purchased Hamptons in 2020, these issues became the responsibility of the new owners, the Chemsford Muslim Society.

THE LOSS OF THE “OVERFLOW PARKING” ON THE TYDEMAN’s GREEN

Resident’s were informed of the change to local parking conditions and restrictions in January 2021, with the Tydeman’s Green no longer available as “unofficial”overflow parking for larger events at Hamptons.

Given that we’ve been in lockdown for a lot of that period, you’d think that the “new management team” at Hamptons, would have had plenty of time to put together a sensible parking and event management plan, to deal with the loss of the “unofficial” overflow parking area. Clearly not !!

The shortfall

Given that the Main Hall capacity is 400 (and potentially the other rooms taking that up to a total of 1,000), and the almost complete lack of alternative methods of travel to visit Hamptons in the evening (or weekends), as a worst case scenario 550-650 cars could need parking spaces. That’s a shortfall of 552 spaces, and possibly what we’ll experience for the 2022 Eid celebrations.

Although the 2021 Eid prayers were held outdoors at another venue, the fallback venue (for bad weather) is Hamptons. And that would be a last minute call, giving residents little advance warning. The 2021 Eid In The Park event was attended by 1,400 worhippers.

Even with just the Main Hall in play, and no other uses, Hamptons would still need 200-250 spaces onsite, a shortfall of 152 spaces.

In fact, based on the national travel mode figures for journeys by private vehicle (62%), the capacity of the whole venue would need to reduce to just 150, to accomodate customers and staff parking onsite.

They need a parking beat survey

This was something we did in 2020, when the “planning application” was imminent (according to the council). A Parking Beat Survey identifies all potential onstreet parking in the vicinity, and involves counts being done at peak times for the venue.

Of course that’s only half the story, as no space is guaranteed to be available when an event is on. And residents in adjoining roads, may not be too chuffed at losing their spaces.

There are solutions

With another large event planned for next weekend (09/10/21) , it’s vital that Hamptons make some better plans, and also informs local residents how they will manage the situation. Scenes like this, cannot be repeated.

Quite frankly, just directing customers back to the main road or reducing the hall capacity slightly, won’t cut the mustard, residents have had enough !

There are solutions (sadly none of them cheap), but if Hamptons wishes to keeps their neighbours, customers and Essex Police happy, they’ll invest the time and money.

Long-term it may require modifications to the venue’s licence, and Traffic Regulation Order’s to prevent further risks to public safety. And that will be our next step.

KBO