Post 75 – 21/10/24 – Bakeham Lane (5 Minute Read)

Has anyone been down Bakeham Lane recently? If so, you may have seen something similar to the pictures below.

The parking seen in the pictures is a new problem. Although there are technically no reasons why cars cannot park here (there are no yellow lines and no signs indicating restrictions) it is dangerous to do so. 

Bakeham Lane is a fast windy road. The junction with the A30 is particularly dangerous as many cars enter the road at pace when crossing over from St Jude’s Road. Similarly you will see cars speeding up to catch the lights when travelling in the other direction.  And recently, in January of this year, tragically a pedestrian was killed after being struck by a van just a 100 yards or so from this location.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68169282

So why have cars started parking here?

Well, this can be partly attributed to the double yellow lines that were put down on Simons Walk recently. The history here is that residents of Simons Walk, fed up with their street being used as an overspill car park for Royal Holloway, including inconsiderate and unsafe parking, lobbied Ben Spencer MP to get a meeting with Royal Holloway after Royal Holloway refused to meet with them. Their lobbying was successful and a meeting was arranged but, ultimately, no reasonable outcomes were forthcoming from Royal Holloway. The residents then turned to the Surrey County Council Parking Review process where their voices were heard and ultimately the new parking restrictions were applied. (We should add that we have no grievance with the residents of Simons Walk for taking this action and bettering their lot).

So this academic year, some commuters to Royal Holloway have found that they can no longer park on Simons Walk and looked for the next most convenient location – Bakeham Lane. More dangerous but still free and convenient.

We have written to Royal Holloway to advise them of this new problem and to express our concerns. We will no doubt get a response soon. We have, though, prepared ourselves for a response similar to the one that residents of Simons Walk received when they first approached Royal Holloway to highlight their parking issue. It will be along the lines of, ‘We are not responsible for parking enforcement off-campus.’

They may also ask us the question, ‘How do you know that these cars belong to members of our organisation?’ Laughable we know but refusing to take ownership, as we have become all too familiar with, is one of the Senior Leadership Team’s most favoured defences.

So what is the solution? Surrey County Council will, no doubt, have to step in and put in some more parking restrictions in order to prevent another possible tragedy. But this is just another expensive sticking plaster for the taxpayer to pick up the cost of.

The root cause of the problem is that there are not enough parking spaces provided by Royal Holloway for the number of people that they want on campus. 

Yes, Prof. Tracy Bhamra and the rest of Royal Holloway’s Senior Leadership Team may wish that members of their organisation don’t bring their cars to campus but the reality is that many of them do. Until the Senior Leadership Team accepts this reality, and takes responsibility by investing in more parking or reducing its numbers, we will continue to see parking problems in our community.

Royal Holloway wants to grow by 25% to 15,000 students by 2030.  At the same time the number of parking spaces on the main campus has declined to less than they had 20 years ago. Is this responsible behaviour? Is this good management and good forward planning?  We don’t think so, we think It is another sign of poor leadership.

2004: 1225 regular parking bays and 54 disabled spaces
2014: 1325 regular parking bays and 58 disabled spaces
2024: 1202 regular parking bays and 54 disabled spaces

Royal Holloway recently declared itself as a university of social purpose. We’re unsure as to what that really means but it would appear it has nothing to do with Corporate Social Responsibility.  Royal Holloway’s Senior Leadership Team needs to start owning the problems it causes and the socio-economic harm it inflicts on the local community.  It can’t continue to expect the other agencies, the community and the taxpayer to continually fix its problems for them.

Best wishes,

We Need To Talk About Royal Holloway

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