Bankmill Road

West End playpark improvements

Having long campaigned for an upgrade to the Victoria Park playpark, it is good to see the proposals for the impending improvements agreed by the council’s Neighbourhood Services Committee – here’s a couple of images of the plans that should be completed before the end of March :

 

Last July, I raised with the council residents’ requests to make improvements at the playpark in Milnbank Road/Bankmill Road and I am pleased at the positive response to my request.   On Monday, the council’s Neighbourhood Services Committee will consider the following proposal :

Milnbank Play Area – Improve all surfacing within the play area. This includes removing slabbed surface and replacing with rubber mulch safety surface and additional ground restoration works.

I am also pleased that the following proposal is also being considered on Monday :

Magdalen Green Play Area – Improve stability of the well-used banking by installation of a Scramble net to enhance play for users and additional restoration to safety surfacing.

Playpark at Bankmill Road/Milnbank Road

I recently was asked by residents if the playpark at Bankmill Road/Milnbank Road could be improved – see below :
The playpark has not had any capital funding spent on it in a very long time and I asked the council if it can be considered for future improvements.
 
The Head of Environment in the City Council’s Neighbourhood Services who initially advised me :
 
“I will get one of our staff to have a look at this.    In terms of priorities for 2016/2017 we are looking at Dawson and Victoria Park with other sites having minor improvement with Health and Safety being an important factor. The budget is going to be the limiting factor.”
 
I have already updated residents about the welcome improvements planned to Victoria Park’s playpark planned for this year but I am hoping that ewe can see improvements for the playpark at Bankmill Road/Milnbank Road in the future as well.


The Assistant Operations Manager for Neighbourhood Services in the west of the city further updated me regarding this playpark that :


” .. there were improvements in 2015 to the park, mainly the south fence and there was a new Timber Climb / slide installed. The remainder of the units are probably 10 years old. 


(It is a) bit run down due to the amount of hard surfacing – mainly slabs, tar paths, etc.   I am currently looking to see if this can be softened up by grassing some of this.  Also, the benches and bins could do with re-positioning which I will have carried out.”

Road safety : Bankmill Road/Milnbank Road junction

Residents have raised with me concerns about road safety at the Bankmill Road/Milnbank Road junction, with vehicles coming along Milnbank Road having to pull in at the junction to give way to vehicles heading along Milnbank Road in the opposite direction.
 
I raised the concerns with the City Council and the City Council’s Head of Transportation has now updated me as follows :
 
“From a recent site inspection and information provided by yourself the vehicles travelling along Milnbank Road are unlikely vehicles exceeding the 30 mph speed limit but due to parked vehicles and the narrow carriageway width they may perception that vehicles are exceeding the 30 mph speed limit.
There are double yellow on the south side of Milnbank Road at the Bankmill Road junction to maintain the free passage of vehicles with a give and take arrangement in place.  This will be the part of the concerns that your constituent raises that the junction is used as a pull in, however there are very limited options available in this vicinity.  Due to the residential flats on the north side of Milnbank Road it is not feasible to place double yellow lines along the full length of the north side as this would prohibit the residents from parking near their properties and would likely be met with objections.
I will arrange to carry out further monitoring of this location and consider this location for inclusion within a future traffic speed survey site.  It may be that difficult options looking at additional parking restrictions opposite Bankmill Road may be needed.   This may be countered that it is disproportionate and that the continuation of occasional pulling into the junction has to be tolerated by residents of Bankmill Road, as regular user of the area you drive cautiously in expectation that this may arise.
My engineers will report back in the coming months once the surveys and further observations are undertaken.”

Pathway – Bankmill Road to Rosefield Place

I have received complaints from residents that the pathway from Rosefield Place to Bankmill Road is badly overgrown and I have been given assurances by the Housing Department that action is being taken to have this attended to.
 
The car park/roadway area to the immediate south on Rosefield Place itself is also overgrown (see right) and I have been in touch with the City Council’s Road Maintenance Partnership to ascertain who is responsible for tidying this up.

Bankmill Road

Although the recent thaw has helped to reduce the extent of icy roads and footpaths across the city, there are still areas causing residents difficulty. 

Residents in Bankmill Road have contacted me about the state of the road and pavements in the street and also in the pathway that runs from the street to Rosefield Place that residents use to get to the Blackness Road shops.

A number of the residents are elderly and the icy paths are causing real problems – one resident with mobility problems has not been out the house in the past five weeks.

I have contacted the City Council about this asking that the winter maintenance team give the area attention as soon as possible.